Wars of Creation: Act II
by Tim46billion
Summary: Four new systems join the Galactic Republic, but all are in some sort of turmoil. Civil wars, corrupt scheming, and attempting to survive against an enemy that will not stop. Alone, things look bleak. But together, with the Republic, things change. With the help of new friends, The Republic has a new shot at ending the Clone Wars. T for Language, may go up later for Death.
1. History of the Galaxy

**A/N: I played with numbers, made some events last longer and made them be earlier in time. I also made it to where the Forerunners completely died off.**

* * *

THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

In the Beginning, there was The One. Seeking to fill his empty Universe with Life, he Created the Allspark and two Brothers; Order and Chaos, Creation and Destruction, Primus and Unicron. They were tasked with peopling the universe. Unicron, jealous of Primus's ability to simply sit back and create at his leisure; challenged his brother, where if he won he would get the power of creation.

The First Battle was long, and lasted millennia. Entire Galaxies were consumed, until Primus fled to a large spiral galaxy with four small satellites. Sensing how much potential this galaxy had, Primus decided to make a final stand. Using the metal of an entire solar system, he created The Thirteen; The First Primes: Prima, the Leader; Vector Prime, Guardian of Time and Space; Megatronus Prime, The Fallen; Nexus Prime, First of the Combiners; Micronus Prime, Progenitor of the Mini-Cons; Liege Maximo, the Schemer; Solus Prime, she of the Golden Forge; Epistemus Prime; the Intellectual; Autonomus Maximus, the wordless Sentinal; Solomus Prime, the Gentle Spark; Onyx Prime, Guardian of Organics; Alchemist Prime, the Chemist; and Alpha Trion, the Archivist. With the help of his creations, Primus finally defeated Unicron, and banished him to one of the outer satellites of the galaxy. Weary from battle, Primus changed himself into a metal planet, embedded the Allspark into his very spark chamber, bestowed upon Prima the Matrix of Leadership, and allowed his children free reign on his surface.

Left adrift in space, Unicron was tekan pity upon by The One, who reformed him into a planet as well, then filled that planet and the moon it later captured with life. While Primus's children saw fit to guard the Allspark and advance in sciences both practical and less so, the Children of Chaos, or as they were later called, the Precursors, chose instead to travel the galaxy and seed life, hoping to pass on the mantle of Guard of Unicron. They tested a group known as the Forerunners, but the warmongering species failed. Angry, the Forerunners rose up and did battle against the Precursors, sending them fleeing back to Unicron's body, a broken civilization.

As The Forerunners pursued, the Precursors' original choice, Humanity, advanced in technology and discovered space, and eventually, allied with the San'Shyuum. As this alliance was beginning, Precursors continued fleeing the Forerunners, some of them turning their bodies into to powder to be revived later. These powdered Precursors are found by Humans and San'Shyuum, and eventually reform into the Galaxy's greatest threat: The Flood.

The Flood took revenge against the Forerunners, causing them to activate the Halo Array and thus destroy the entire galaxy of sentient, organic life. The Thirteen Primes had seen this coming, for they were all children of destruction, and had a plan. The Librarian, a Forerunner, had taken samples of all sentient and pre-sentient life, and stored them on The Ark. The Primes went and reengineered the life forms, as well as creating new non-sentient life, and reseeded life on any and every planet that could hold it; attempting to put as many species back on their home-worlds as possible. Two species' home-worlds had been destroyed in battles, however: Humans and Forerunners. Deciding that since the Forerunners' arrogance was what caused the whole mess, the Forerunners were not reseeded elsewhere, and were placed into storage instead; while humanity, the true inheritors of the Mantle, were spread across the whole galaxy, with a genetic strain that was especially war-like kept close to Cybertron, as Primus had come to be called, for further study. Unicron's body was left bereft of life, but it had shielded its moon from the blast and so was left alone.

Before the study of Humanity could begin, though, tragedy struck. Megatronus Prime, suspicious of his brother Liege Maximo, confronted Prima about his suspicions. Prima did not believe Megatronus, saying that he was getting paranoid because of all of the unrest in the galaxy, continuing on to say that his Dark Energon armor may be poisoning him. Maximo, worried that Megatronus may be on to him, accelerated his plans to kill Prima and steal the Matrix of Leadership for himself. Megatronus found out, and in the ensuing battle, killed Maximo. Feeling guilt over the death of his brother, Megatronus confronted Alpha Trion and forced him to falsify the events. The Record was made to show that Megatronus, in a jealous rage over Solus, one of the only female Primes, killed Maximo and then fled. His name was stricken from the record, and other than Solus telling tales of him to the later Cybertronians, Megatronus was forevermore referred to as The Fallen.

Millions of years passed, and genetic mutation occured in a large percentage of the galaxy; which was caused by their genetic material coming into contact with the Primes. A small portion of the population began exhibiting some of the most notable abilities of the Primes, such as levitating objects, seeing without seeing, predicting the future, intuitive instincts, and either great affinity rage or to compassion. Not knowing what the power these beings used was called, the galaxy came to know it as The Force.

The Force has a Light Side, and a Dark Side; and like Primus and Unicron, neither side could best the other. That is, until an up-and-coming Dark Side wielder, known only as Bane, conspired against the Dark Council and had them and an entire planet killed by a self destructive technique called the Thought Bomb. Enacting his new rule, the Rule of Two, Darth Bane and his Sith apprentice disappeared from Jedi Records. The Old Republic survived thus until a great uprising, orchestrated by the new Dark Lord, Darth Sidious, caused a Civil War. This War's battles caught the attention of a newly victorious United Earth Government and the Swords of Sanghelios, who reached out to the Republic to request assistance in exterminating the Covenant and in return would commit forces in the defense of the Republics interests.

Before any of this had begun, however, Unrest had begun on Cybertron. Of the Original Thirteen Primes, Twelve were either dead or missing. Only Alpha Trion remained, dutifully archiving the full history of the entire universe. He'd been around for most of it after all. The High Council, elected into government when Sentinal Prime had gone missing in the core of Cybertron, had set into place a caste system: The Prime, should he return; followed by The Council, The Seeker Aristocracy, The Military, The Proletariat, The Laborers, and finally, at the bottom were the Indentured Servants, Slaves, and Gladiators.

One such Gladiator, a slave by the moniker of D-146, rose in the ranks until he was nearly undefeated. One day, on his allotted time outside of the pits, he saw a medium sized mech being mugged in an alley. He sprung into action and saved the young mech. Revealing himself to be an apprentice archivist by the name of Orion Pax, D-146 asked if Orion would accompany him daily to the Hall of Records in Iacon. In return, D-146 promised to teach Orion how to defend himself. Pax agreed.

They met as such, learning history, politics, stances, martial arts, weapons use, mathematics, literature, and a personal favorite to both of them: sword play. They met new friends too, an up-and-coming surgeon named Ratchet, an Enforcer named Ariel, and a computer technician and electronic musician called Soundwave. Eventually, in one of their History lessons, Orion taught D-146 about the Legend of the Fallen. Enjoying the sound of the former's name, he renamed himself Megatronus, the name striking fear into the hearts of most of his opponents, earning him victories nearly before fights began. Eventually he took his name and friends into the political arena. There, he revealed his true colors; he wanted to abolish the Caste system and the Council with it. He demanded to be made the new Prime so he could rule over Cybertron with an iron fist.

Orion was appalled, and used his own political knowledge to refute every ounce of flawed logic Megatronus used in his speech. Enraged at his first friend's betrayal, he fled, followed by Soundwave. Recruiting the majority of the Military and the Seeker Aristocracy, he declaredwar against the Council and all who stood by them. Many Cybertronians fled to the outer moons, while others stood to fight, Orion among them. Due to his close teachings with the newly dubbed Megatron, he was the only one who stood even a remote chance of defeating him. Eventually, Orion went to the Core to ask Primus for guidance, but when he arrived he found Sentinal Prime waiting for him. Weak from Energon deprivation, the Prime asked him if he felt he was worthy of taking the Matrix of Leadership. At Orion's staunch refusal, Sentinal Prime smiled softly and died. The Matrix, as it always had, sensed the presence of the next Prime, and bestowed itself to Orion Pax, who became Optimus Prime.

Later in the War, as Allied cities fell left and right, Optimus Prime allowed for the radical plan of a small strike team escaping the now blockaded Cybertron in search of new allies to hold back the tide of Megatron's Decepticons. The mission failed, however; withtwo of the three planes being unable to escape the atmosphere and the third being shot into a stasis lock, set adrift amongst the stars.


	2. Act One: Salvation

**Chapter 1**

* * *

"Master Jedi, look! One of the probe droids just discovered something."

Anakin leaned over the screen and raised an eyebrow at what he saw. The screen depicted a planet with cities and obvious signs of industrialization, but that wasn't what warranted their reactions. On the image was a large, rounded, purple vessel shelling the pictured city.

"I just scanned the sector that probe droid was launched to, and apparently there's been a war going on under the Republic's nose for a while now, if the breadth of the battles is anything to go by. What should we do?"

"We inform the Senate, of course."

* * *

"Senator Amidala, you can't possibly mean that we should help them? We are currently in the middle of our own war."

"I understand, Senator Organa. However, my idea was much more complex than just sending troops. As you can see from the intelligence gathered by the probe droids, each faction is an incredibly capable fighting force, maybe even on par with the Mandalorians of legend. If we were able to resolve their conflict, we would easily gain a formidable ally to combat the Separatists. If we were to show them that secession is impossible they may surrender, thus ending this conflict peacefully."

"Then we are to commit troops to a mad gamble that may not even bear fruit, is that what you are suggesting?"

"No, Senator. I recommend only two destroyers; our superior tactics and technology would ensure success."

"Where would we get even two destroyers? Our forces are spread thin as it is."

"Generals Kenobi and Skywalker have just arrived in Coruscant, Senator Organa. I'm sure that out of everyone in the Republic fleet, those two would be more than happy to explore this possibility."

"Then I recommend a Senatorial Accompaniment. Sending two Venator class destroyers would require that, would it not?"

The rest of the Senate Chamber, who all had been uncharacteristically silent up to that point, agreed heartily, and loudly, with the Alderanian until Mas Amedda called for order in his booming voice.

"While I agree with the Senate, Senator Organa, who would you propose to lead such a mission?"

"Why Senator Amidala herself, of course. Out of all of us she is the most qualified and the most experienced in… aggressive negotiations. I believe that even though this plan is foolhardy, if anyone could make it work, she could," he said as he smiled slightly at Senator Amidala.

"Thank you, Senator; I'll see to the mission, and ensure its success."

* * *

"We'll want to stock up at the Bilbringi station. It's the closest depot to our projected Hyperspace lane. Once we're there, I'll meet up with the station master and ask if he's willing to use Bilbringi as one of the primary fueling stations for this lane," Obi-wan said to Anakin.

"What will we do after that?"

"Escort the Senator to the negotiations, of course."

"Understood, Master. Be careful, I feel… something, in the Force."

"I will be careful. Allow no ships to dock, and stay vigilant."

Obi-Wan turned and left the bridge, making his way to the LAAT/i that would take him and a contingent of clones to the surface. As soon as everyone was holding tight, the carrier left the Star Destroyer, and made its way down to a landing platform at the station. Obi-Wan and the clones left to go see the commander, leaving the bay doors open. No one saw a small, black creature enter the shuttle.

* * *

Later, after Obi-Wan had returned and the clones had gone back to the barracks, the same dark figure crawled out of the dropship, silently lurking through the hangar, before slipping off down a hallway. It happened upon a mess hall's back entrance, leading directly into the galley. Sneaking in, the creature began eating everything it could gets its hands on, before turning and running into a pantry.

"Are you sure you heard something?"

"I'm telling you, commander, someone was in there."

Ahsoka sighed. "I'll give it a quick look. Just go tell Anakin what I'm doing okay, Threepio?"

The orange Togruta reached out with her feelings, and felt a presence in the far corner. Reaching down to her comm, she sent a quick message to Anakin.

"I think we picked up a stowaway."

She addressed the galley

"Okay, I know you're in there, so come on out and no one will hurt you…"

Slowly, a humanoid figure stepped out of the shadows of a pantry. She had purple eyes, and she was clad in a dark robe that covered everything.

"Yeah, alright. You understand me?"

"B… barely…."

Her voice, though dry and hoarse, was beautiful, if broken.

"Tell you what. You're hungry? Let's take that food back to my quarters, where you won't be so cold, okay?"

"Heat doesn't affect me."

"Okay, well, you don't want to just lurk the whole time right? You came here for a reason right?"

"Y- yes."

"Alright. Let's go."

* * *

"No, master. We won't put her in the brig."

"No? Ahsoka, she could be dangerous."

"Well, she's not, okay? She's… different though, that's for sure."

Obi-Wan piped in. "Different? Different how?"

"Well, when she finally fell asleep, I gave her a look over. She's extremely cold, but doesn't shiver. Her heartbeat isn't stuttered, like normal humans either. It's slow, low, and steady. And when I say low I mean I could only feel it with my hand pressed against her chest. Not only that but she barely breathes, and her eyes are extremely bright. Almost illuminated from within."

"What does she feel like in the Force?"

"There's a lot of power there, but no focus. She wouldn't be a Force wielder, but her species, if she isn't human, would be powerful."

"Did she give a reason for stowing away?"

"She said she's looking for someone. She wouldn't say exactly who, but I think it's her mom. And I think she's a survivor of Reecee."

"What makes you say that, Snips?"

"I… may have convinced her to tell me some of her background. She said that her earliest memory is of a titanic being killing people all around her. She said that all she remembers is that the creature had purple eyes."

"A survivor of Reecee… if one could analyze her memories, they could find out why a core world was completely wiped out."

"I don't think so, Master Obi-Wan. From what I could tell, she was only a baby."

"A baby remembers things, Ahsoka. If she remembers the right things is the question."

* * *

 **Finally finished re-writing this darn chapter. Ugh. I used to hate these chapters, but now that they're one they fit better.**


	3. Act I

**Chapter 2**

 **As of this point forward this story is dedicated to WarDude101, for keeping me from getting knocked on my ass by writer's block. Also, as this chapter was doing its best to kill me, I decided to make this story a lot darker. There will be light hearted moments, and there will be character deaths. Main characters, side characters, and OC's will die. OC submission is open, but only for Halo marines and ODSTs. RWBY teams will be considered, but they'll have to meet specific criteria to take it in. No Jedi or Sith. Yes to bounty hunters and clones, but bounty hunters also have a low chance. No RvB freelancers or Red/Blue team. Transformers will not even be considered.  
**

* * *

Purple eyes opened to a darkened room.

She sat up and looked around, seeing the orange Togruta from yesterday sitting on the floor.

"Good morning," it said.

She paused. "How did you know I was awake?"

"I am a Jedi, and I am meditating. I heard your heart rate increase, and the sound of your joints moving. Did you know that your joints sound different than anyone else's I've heard?"

"Uhm…"

"A lot about you is different, actually. To be honest, I'd say you reminded me of a droid."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that if it weren't for your breathing and heartbeat, your body would sound closer to a droid than to someone such as me."

"But, droids aren't alive. I'm alive. Where are we going anyway?"

Ahsoka decided not to comment on the change of subject. "We're on our way to a remote system of planets, in particular a system called Sol. We're bringing an ambassador to discuss entry into the Republic on their part, and help in the war on our part. Considering we're in our own war I doubt Senator Amidala will allow us to begin hostilities against their enemies, but from what I was able to hear of the correspondence between her and one of their members the enemies they're fighting are on par with the Separatists for brutality. They even want to wipe out all life in that sector of the galaxy under the guise of 'The Great Journey', whatever that means."

"What's going to happen to me?"

"My Master, Anakin wanted to put you in the brig, but his old Master, Obi-Wan, and I convinced him to let me take care of you."

"Your Master? You're a slave?"

"What? No, not at all. I'm a Jedi in training. Master Anakin is just who is training me."

"Oh. You said his name is Anakin. What's your name?"

"My name is Ahsoka Tano. What's yours?"

"I don't know. I can't remember it, at least. However, my caretakers would call me Sydney."

"What a beautiful name." There was a knock at the door. "That'll be Master Obi-Wan. He wants to ask you about that memory you told me about."

"But, I told you everything. He's not gonna hurt me, is he?"

Ahsoka opened the door, "Of course not, he wouldn't hurt a living creature unless he had to."

In walked a man with red hair and beard, wearing his tan tunic covered in armor.

* * *

Later

* * *

"Well that was easier than I thought. Didn't get any useful information, though. Everything she told us is all she knows," said Obi-Wan.

"So you're sure that she can be trusted?" Anakin asked.

"She's but a child. And she seems to be getting along with Ahsoka very well, so there's that as well."

"What do you mean?"

"She's much more comfortable with her than myself. I can't explain it; she seems to distrust males almost exclusively. Maybe she'll grow on us. For now, at least; I think she's fine where she is."

"Master Jedi," called the Admiral.

"Yes?" Anakin asked.

"Long range scanners have confirmed: the space between our current location and the Sol system is completely clear. I suggest we go to hyper-speed."

"Go ahead."

* * *

The Star destroyers exited hyperspace just outside of the Sol System, approaching the outer reaches of the Kuiper Belt.

"Wow, this system is massive for such a small host star," a technician remarked from his console.

Ahsoka and Sydney had just walked onto the bridge for the tour when they heard that.

"What do you mean by that?" Ahsoka asked.

"We're about 18 light days away from Sol 3, and we're already entering the system's outer debris field. What do the locals call it? Ah yes: The Kuiper Belt. It looks like we'll be passing through several debris fields in this system. I'll start cataloging and tracking nearby objects."

"Thank you, trooper." A voice said from behind them. Sydney jumped, while Ahsoka turned and greeted the Admiral. Sydney blushed at her reaction.

The Admiral merely smiled softly, before turning to the helm. "Helmsman, I want an 80% sub-light burn towards Sol 3. We need to get there quickly without overloading the reactor."

"Right away, sir."

Meanwhile, at the tracking terminal, Trooper CT-3331, better known as Triple-A, discovered an anomaly in the objects he was tracking. While most of the object he had on his scopes were in fairly standard orbits, one object; located almost perfectly 90° around the star; was falling inwards. Aiming the Destroyer's main scanner at the curious object, he discovered that the object was made of no known materials, which was even stranger than its current trajectory. Triple-A decided to use the optical function of the scanner.

When the screen finally showed a visible image, he enhanced the image until he could understand what he was seeing. Turning to the trooper next to him, he called him over.

"Hey, Ace, check this out."

Ace leaned over and looked at the screen, which depicted a bright green starfighter, drifting almost lazily towards the center of the system.

"What do you make of it?" he asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen a personal starfighter of that make, and from the records the UNSC provided us, they don't make open cockpit fighters, either."

"Are you sure that the canopy wasn't ripped off during a bailout?"

"Who would bailout in the middle of nowhere? And besides, that thing is bright green. Since when do any of the pictures of UNSC ships show a color that isn't regulation?"

"What are you two arguing over now?"

They turned to find Ahsoka smiling down at them from the raised walkway.

"Well, Commander, I began cataloging the random space debris that appears abundant in this system. I discovered this piece, catalogued as SD-3224, and noticed its anomalous path. It appears to have come from outside the system."

"You're sure?"

"Well, not only that, but it's a spacecraft that doesn't appear in any of the known manufacturing databases, nor does it appear in the database the UNSC and Sangheili sent us."

"Could it have Mon Calamari origins? They're always innovating."

"I thought that, but I figured that was unlikely because they notify the Republic of new craft immediately, and we would have been notified of all prototypes. Also, I doubt even a lone engineer would allow a prototype or finished product to get away."

Ahsoka hummed, before thanking the clone and turning away.

"Admiral, one of the clones has discovered an anomaly in the abundance of debris surrounding this system."

"What is it?"

"It's a spacecraft of unknown origin. It's an open cockpit, and there are no signs of a pilot."

"What is its heading?"

"Towards the Inner System."

"Is there anything we can do about it?"

"Not at the moment."

"Then we wait until we can do something."

"Uh, Admiral, Commander?"

"Yes, Trooper?" the Admiral answered.

"We probably won't get a chance. I just got a velocity reading: 104,658 meters per second. Due to its angle of approach and where we are, we won't even be close to it until well within the inner debris belt. By that point the Nexus will have split off into an orbit of Sol while we continue inward to Sol-3. Quite simply it's moving too slow."

"In that case, continue to monitor its vector. If it seems to be a problem, warn us."

* * *

 **It's a little longer than the last two. That tends to happen to a lot of my stories. Chapter averages tend to grow the further along I get in a story. 'Til next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3**

 **A/N: as you all can tell if you read the new first chapter, I made lots of major or minor changes to the origin of the universe. I changed Unicron, the Force, and the Precursors. I also made changes to dates and how long things lasted, although I didn't specifically list those. I did a lot of studying for that and personally think I meshed all three major universes perfectly. RvB is part of Halo so its history is the same, and RWBY never goes to space so I can just say… well, I won't say that because spoilers but let me just say that the moon wasn't always shattered.**

* * *

Sydney gasped when she saw the planet. It was a jewel hanging in space; covered in blues, greens, whites and yellows; its large moon peeking out from the other side of the planet. Its beauty, in her eyes was marred only by the huge amount of man-made creations in orbit.

"So this is the actual human home-world?" Ahsoka asked from beside her.

"According to their records; and from what I've heard they date further back than any of the Old Republic. Not only that, but they also say that this isn't their home world. They say another planet that was destroyed long ago was." Sydney looked at Anakin. He was looking at the planet with a neutral expression, but she could swear there was a twinkle in his eye. "However, after a long war between them and some close cousins of humans, they lost and were devolved and spread all over the galaxy. This planet is where they re-evolved first, so it is now considered the Human home-world."

Ahsoka looked sharply up at Anakin. "How will the rest of the billions of humans across the Galaxy take this news? We might be looking at a mass pilgrimage."

"I had a conversation with their President; she said she welcomes the tourism. Apparently their War is very taxing on their coffers; which makes sense since we'll be in the same spot if this War doesn't end soon."

"So she's going to force people to pay? That's not fair!"

"She won't make them pay much; plus, she's got to convince her planet to start accepting Credits; and we'll have to convince the Banking Clan to accept their own credits and form an exchange rate for them."

The Admiral got their attention by turning on the all-call. "Generals Skywalker and Kenobi; Commanders Tano and Cody; Captain Rex; R2-D2 and C-3PO; you are needed on the flight deck to escort Senator Amidala to negotiations."

As they walked away, Sydney looked around, trying to find somewhere to read a data-pad that Ahsoka had given her.

"Hey."

Sydney turned to see Ahsoka beckoning to her. Grinning, she hurried after the Jedi. She couldn't wait to see the beautiful planet.

* * *

A bald man sat in his office looking at his computer screen. On the screen was a silhouette of a face. All that could be seen on the face were red eyes.

"They have arrived in your system and will be meeting with your diplomat soon. I trust you have… bought him?"

"Actually, I convinced the president to make me the Ambassador's emissary. With a few more nudges in the right direction, I will be made a Senator and Lord Sidious will have another voice in the Senate."

"Excellent. Considering my planet will not be able to choose a Senator any time soon, you will probably be our only true voice. But beware; Senator Amidala is no pushover, be careful around her."

"I have already been briefed, but thank you, S-"

"You fool! Do not say my name, or any of our names! That blasted Soundwave hears everything! I was only just able to modulate my voice enough to where even he won't recognize it, but it's all for naught if you speak my name!"

"Why don't you bring him into our fold?"

"Because he's far too loyal to Megatron, and Megatron would never bow down to Master Sidious."

"And why is it okay to say our Master's name?"

"Because that's not his real name and sound wave does not know who he is. I must sign off; one of my superior officers is beckoning."

"Good luck."

* * *

A similar conversation was taking place on another set of planets even further from each other.

"I've gotta say, Master, this technology is unheard of on my planet. The SDC hasn't even gotten close to interstellar communication with no lag."

"That is not important, Lady Cinder. What is important is that you need to ramp up production. The Jedi have discovered the existence of the creatures and the army needs to be ready sooner, rather than later. Decrease surface attacks, increase terrorism, and increase production. Or I will send someone to dispose of you and do it himself."

The connection abruptly terminated. Cinder dropped her fake smile and scowled.

'I remember when I was in charge of this operation. Now he's taken it over and ruined it.'

Stalking out of her private room she snapped at her two lieutenants.

"Emerald, Mercury. I need you to get something from Schnee Manor. We're accelerating our plans."

"What do you need?" Mercury asked.

"Code name: White."

"Yes, Lady Cinder," said Emerald as they both turned on their heel and left for Atlas.

Cinder walked out to her elevated platform, making sure to keep her face hidden.

"Roman. Rouse the Fang. Their expertise is needed once more."

Roman scowled, before looking up at his least favorite boss. "And Adam? Last we heard he was in prison."

"Then break him out. It might scare Code name: Black enough to bring her and Yellow out of hiding."

"And what of Little Red and White?"

"They're being taken care of. You get Adam and deal with Black and Yellow. Now!"

Cinder scowled as he sauntered away, with markedly less speed than her strike team. That didn't matter though; she had a prisoner to exploit.

* * *

The LAAT/i flew out of the Star Destroyer's main hangar. Anakin was with the pilots at the front of the craft. He pulled up a holo-map of the planet.

"According to the coordinates they gave us, their capitol is here, on this small continent. They told us we'd recognize the building when we saw it."

As the bulky assault transport flew down through the atmosphere and approached a continent made almost entirely of desert, Sydney looked out across the islands and oceans and determined that it looked much prettier from space. Down here she could see the pollution and amount of industrialization that had taken place.

"Well, Sir, I see the Capital."

The building looked new, and fairly modern. Covered in glass, steel, and white marble, it was striking and beautiful, much like the first impressions of the planet. There was a large courtyard at the front of the building, where three figures could be seen.

The dropship landed and extended its ramp, down which Senator Amidala and her guards descended. Anakin and Obi-Wan watched out for snipers, even here; and Ahsoka was in charge of making sure Sydney and the droids didn't wander off.

"Hello Senator, Master Jedi. My name is President Ruth Charet, this is the leader of the UNSC, Admiral Terrence Hood, and this is our ambassador, chairman of Charon industries, Malcolm Hargrove."

"Hello, Madam President, Admiral, Chairman. Shall we take this indoors? It is much hotter out here than I expected," replied Padmé.

Hargrove spoke up. "Of course, my office is closest to here and has the most seating."

"Oh don't worry, the guards will remain outdoors, and if you don't mind, the Jedi will patrol the premises? With the war going on, one can never be too careful, even out here."

"Of course, of course; I'll let the Marines know not to hinder the Jedi," said Admiral Hood.

"Thank you Admiral."

The four of them, plus the Clone accompaniment, went inside the building.

"Anakin, you patrol the upper levels of this and nearby buildings. Ahsoka, take Sydney and the droids and patrol the outside of the building. Rex, watch the front door. Cody, take the back. I'll do a sweep of the whole city. Do not engage suspicious contacts, but rather report them in along with a threat assessment." Obi-Wan gave out orders with a swift efficiency borne of long practice.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Sydney had never seen so many lights. She had grown up on an industrial satellite, and only ever travelled in a military vessel. The Capital of Earth was simply astounding. She had thought that the flight to the surface had proven that the planets beauty didn't penetrate the atmosphere, but she was wrong.

Ahsoka had never seen Sydney so open. She looked at the towering skyscrapers with awe, and appeared completely at home in the heavily industrialized environment.

' _That's probably because she grew up on a mobile manufacturing plant. I wouldn't put it past her to be completely capable of navigating Coruscant on her own,'_

While Ahsoka had been thinking, Sydney had been watching the sky, and noticed a meteor streaking down to the surface.

"Ahsoka look!"

Ahsoka quickly spun to see what the other girl was talking about. What she saw looked like a meteor, and she could not determine the origin. Suddenly her wrist com activated.

"Master Jedi, do you see what I see?"

"I hear you, Cody. It appears to be heading for the large inland desert that makes up the majority of this continent," replied Obi-Wan.

"I see it too. Rex, Cody; hold positions. Ahsoka, fall back to the dropship, and if the UNSC ask, tell them we are already en route and they can join if they so wish."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes; she totally wanted to go check it out. "Alright, Master, let me just–ˮ Her eyes widened at what she saw: Sydney had somehow procured a white, stringy sling-shot and was preparing to launch herself towards the meteor. "Ahsoka?" Anakin asked, and then Sydney launched herself.

"Master, change of plans; meet me at the dropship, I'll tell you more when we get there." She turned on her heel and sprinted through the city before eventually coming back to the ship. Seeing as she was the first one there, she jumped inside and hailed the pilot.

"Yes ma'am?"

"You saw the meteor that went down outside the city, right?"

"Of course, who didn't?"

"When Anakin and Obi-Wan arrive, we need to go there."

"Yes ma'am."

Only moments after she returned to the main hold, Obi-Wan arrived.

"Anakin said he would stay behind and guard the Senator, and also when he had a chance tell her what happened."

"Okay, Master," she replied before telling the pilot to take off and then explaining what she saw to Obi-Wan.

"Where in the blazes would she have gotten something that could catapult her like that?"

"I don't know, and that's what really bothers me. I've had my suspicions that she wasn't human this whole time, but maybe she… produced it?"

"Herself? How?"

"I wasn't watching her; I had turned away when my com beeped."

"I understand, I'm not reprimanding you."

"Excuse me, General, Commander; we've arrived."

* * *

 **Earlier**

* * *

The meteor smashed into the ground with tremendous force, lifting back into the air for several more seconds before coming back to earth once more, sliding to a stop nearly one hundred meters away from the initial impact.

If anyone had been at the landing site at that moment, they would have seen the smoke clearing away from a heavily dented, scorched, green fighter jet. What they would have seen next though, would have shocked even the most stoic of individuals.

The ship broke apart on the surface, before parts shifted around and the ship lifted itself up to stand tall as a bipedal robot.

"Well, definitely have had worse landings." He stretched, wincing as parts that normally did not rub against each other ground against each other in painful ways. Looking around, he finally noticed what he had landed in.

"A desert. Great. Just what I needed; sand in my joints." He continued grumbling to himself as he tried to get his knee to work properly, before he heard a small impact from behind him.

"What are you?"

He turned around and looked around, before he finally looked down at a small being at his feet.

"Who are you?"

"I asked first."

"I'm bigger."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Tell me your name and I'll tell you mine."

She narrowed her eyes up at him. "Sydney."

"Changewing; now was that so hard?"

"Yes. What are you anyway?"

At that moment the gunship showed up, hovering to a stop next to Sydney. Out of bay doors on the sides two other creatures jumped out, each of them letting out surprised noises in what Changewing assumed was a native tongue.

"Wonderful, more little people; just what I needed."

The one in the white armor stepped forward. "Hello, my name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am a Jedi in service to the Galactic Republic. Who is your maker?"

"My 'maker'? Do you mean Creators? My Carrier's name is Blueblaze, and my Sire's name is Novawing. I doubt their names should mean anything to you, though; they never really left Cybertron before…. Never mind, it's not important."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand. Are you not a Droid?"

"No… I don't even know what a 'Droid' is. I'm an autonomous robotic organism from the planet Cybertron. For short, we just say Cybertronian."

"What is your purpose here; why did you leave your planet?"

"Cybertron is currently embroiled in a civil war. Long story short the insane leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, assassinated our governing body in an attempt to topple the caste system. His apprentice, Orion Pax, was appalled at his actions, and led a good portion of his troops against him. These forces were later known as the Autobots. Shortly after, Orion and a group of his trusted advisers went to the core of Cybertron to request the help of someone that Alpha Trion told Orion about. Orion never returned, but the newest Prime did: Optimus Prime. He's led the Autobots ever since, but it's a losing battle. The Decepticons outnumber us three to one, and we've lost all but three of our cities."

"If you're looking for help in your war, you won't find it here. Both the Galactic republic and the Unified Earth Alliance are in wars of their own."

"We don't need much; just someone or something that's new to distract Megatron so the Prime can capture him. Without Megatron, the Decepticons will fracture into many smaller factions led by various high ranking members that want Megatron dead."

"Why not ask them for help?"

"Because Megatron already knows of their plans to end his life. We need something new and unexpected."

"And what makes you think we can help? As you can tell we are much smaller than you."

"That's exactly why you'll help; Megatron is so arrogant he'd never suspect you."

Obi-Wan hummed to himself, then sighed. "Unfortunately, it is not my decision to make. Why don't you come with us to the capital?"

"I hope it's not far, that fall basically clipped my wings; all I've got left are my wheels."

"You should be able to see it in the distance. We saw your fall from there actually."

"Good. This is gonna hurt."

"What's going to–ˮ Obi-Wan's words were cut short when Changewing transformed once again, only this time into a green car that had six wheels, no fenders, a large spoiler and front-end air splitter.

Sydney finally spoke again, with a loud exclamation of "Awesome!", she dove into the open cockpit in the middle of the vehicle.

"Whoa, what do you think you're doing, kid? I'm not a ride!"

"I don't care, you look so cool!"

"Listen, kid; this cockpit is fully functional. You could seriously injure both yourself and me. So either get out or I will make you get out."

"Nope."

* * *

 **A/N: Not much happening, but our two main characters finally meet! Oops, I wasn't supposed to tell you that. Oh well, I don't mind. Also, don't expect these quick chapters to continue, I have no clue just how long this speed will maintain itself, but I will push it for as long as I can. To WarDude101: Yeah I had no idea I was going to stop this here, but I realized the next scene was too long so… I'll have chapter 6 out ASAP.**

 **Edit: fixed continuity errors and misplaced words.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 5**

 **A/N: btw, this takes place fairly early on in the Clone Wars; it picks up shortly after the brain worms incident.**

* * *

"Absolutely not. The only reason the Chancellor condoned getting involved in this war was because those on the side of righteousness were winning and they wanted to fight for us in return."

"But P- Senator, look at him. He's almost as big as an AT-TE, and infinitely more versatile; and he said that he's not even their strongest fighter. He's not asking for much; their plan seems sound. All he needs is a distraction, and I would gladly do that."

"Anakin, you know the Council would not approve your involvement. And don't just say get a Clone volunteer to do it either, because as far as they are concerned the ranking officer here is Senator Amidala," Obi-Wan interjected.

"Actually, I was thinking maybe you could provide transport for an elite team of soldiers. They single-handedly put down an insurrection in our own forces recently. They arrived here shortly before you did, and a vast majority of them seem bored of the politics going on before their medal ceremony," supplied President Charet, "with your permission of course, Admiral," she looked at Admiral Hood for the last part.

"You mean them, right? Of course; if anyone can distract an insane robot it'll be them."

Charet turned back to the Jedi and livid Senator. "Would you be willing to supply transport? Most of our ships are currently engaged."

Ahsoka finally spoke up. "Master, what about the Twilight? Its hold is big enough to transport Changewing, and with your modifications it has the best chance of being unpredictable to last -against these titanic beings."

"And who will pilot it?" asked Padmé.

"Well, either a volunteer Clone or myself." She leaned closer to her to whisper in her ear. "I have a theory about Sydney's true origins, and I need the flexibility to look into it."

As Ahsoka leaned back, Padmé narrowed her eyes, before snapping towards Anakin. "I agree with Ahsoka, except we cannot spare any Clones for this mission. It is my official recommendation that Ahsoka pilot the Twilight along with the small strike team of UNSC marines and Changewing the Autobot."

Obi-Wan interrupted Anakin's budding refusal. "That sounds reasonable; Ahsoka is an exceptional pilot and has had success operating on her own before. However, due to Sydney's unusual behavior regarding Changewing and her preference towards Ahsoka, I suggest she go as well. Agreed?"

President Charet, Admiral Hood, Senator Amidala, and a reluctant General Skywalker all assented.

* * *

Ahsoka leaned against one of the bulkheads in the cargo space of the Twilight. Changewing, in his wheeled vehicle mode, sat heavily on his tires as he slept. He apparently needed a lot of "recharge" as he called it while his self-repair systems worked on his injuries. Sighing, the Togruta finally got up and went to check on her other passengers.

Sydney had fallen asleep in the Captain's quarters, which was the room that Ahsoka had claimed; she didn't mind however, she'd gotten rather used to the girl's presence and was used to sleeping on much more rugged surfaces than the floor of a ship.

In the mess hall, she found the members of the Reds and Blues. These rowdy, unfocussed, and vulgar men were apparently fairly effective soldiers. Out of all of them, Ahsoka respected the grey and aqua ones the most. Former freelancers, they had more confirmed and unconfirmed kills than the rest of their team combined. As a soldier, she also respected the other aqua soldier, but only because he was the only other one with actual skill, which was only matched by his constant flirting and proclamations of "I'm a lover, not a(n) [insert adjective here]".

"Attention, troopers. We are sufficiently clear of the system and will be entering hyperspace shortly. Please refrain from touching any of the computers during the jump, hyperspace is very dangerous." 'Especially in this old bucket,' she added to herself.

The only female assured her that she'd watch the rest, while the other Aqua one simply attempted to hit on her, again.

She sighed heavily as she slumped into the pilot's chair.

"I understand your frustration. Imagine trying to lead them."

Ahsoka turned to see the grey armored Freelancer leaning in the doorway. She gave a small snort before speaking. "I can't imagine leading them; they bicker constantly over the simplest things. I never did catch any of your names, though."

He listed them, before pausing, and starting again. "Then there's Epsilon. He's an AI fragment."

"'Fragment'?"

"The original AI, Alpha, was… tortured, creating a split personality disorder. Epsilon is the personality that represents Memory."

"That's awful! Who would do that?"

"Carolina's father."

Ahsoka looked down into her lap. "When President Charet said that you all defeated the Insurrection…"

"We stopped him, yes. He took his own life before he could be apprehended. All he was doing was chasing a memory…. Anyway, onto another topic, what is this 'hyperspace' you spoke of?"

"It's how we traverse large distances quickly, much like your slip-space. Here, allow me to demonstrate."

She programmed the coordinates that Changewing had provided her, before preparing to launch the drive. She looked away from the viewport, and spoke as she hit the lever. "It really is beautiful–ˮ

At that exact moment, a rogue asteroid, barely the size of Changewing, hit the extended wing of the Twilight and twisted the whole craft into a new direction. Before Ahsoka could pull back the throttle, the stars extended into the trails of hyperspace, and they were off into an unknown direction.

"Blast it!" She ran to the navi-computer and cancelled the coordinates, then pulled the throttle back into sublight speed.

Not a moment too soon, because they exited Hyperspace inside the atmosphere of a planet. Pressing the button for the intercom, she shouted "Brace for impact!" before pulling back on the yoke as hard as she could. She was able to bleed almost all of their vertical speed into horizontal, but that didn't save them from crashing. The Twilight slammed into the beach of an island with a single mountain and a lot of forests.

As the craft settled, and the passengers exited through the reverse access, Ahsoka sighed and looked up at Changewing. "I take it this isn't your planet?"

"Nope. If we had crashed on Cybertron I would have been the only survivor."

"Why is that?" Simmons asked.

"Cybertron is made entirely of metal."

"Fuck." Grif said what they were all thinking.

Carolina looked over at her. "What happened?"

Washington spoke up. "She turned around to address something I said as she activated the Hyperspeed, just as we were struck by a rogue asteroid."

Ahsoka looked at him in surprise, but decided not to say anything.

"Well, Lopez can fix your ship in a jiffy, but we might need replacement parts. That was a pretty bad crash," said Sarge.

"But Sarge, how do we even know if this planet is inhabited?" Simmons asked.

"Oh! I know! How about we ask the cute little puppy!"

Everyone looked towards where Caboose was pointing, and saw a large, werewolf-like creature covered in bony plates and spines.

"¿Es un hombre lobo?" asked Lopez.

"Yeah, I'm with Lopez, is that a werewolf?" Donut asked directly after.

The only response from the creature was a roar.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6**

 **A/N: So like, I was gonna slow down my update speed, but I realized something important. Meaning you guys get your first and only triple update.**

 **Warning: I ship White Rose. If girlxgirl pairings bother you to the point that you must leave, then do so. I will not fault you for it. If you're still here and are still bothered, good on you for staying; I'm sorry that this might upset you. To everyone else, please continue. Also, some characters, mainly ones that we don't know a lot about (i.e. Summer and Tai-Yang) are probably different from canon.**

* * *

Weiss started from her sleep when she heard a noise. Rolling out of bed, she strode over to the wall where Myrtnaster was mounted and pulled it down. The cool metal of the hilt was reassuring in its familiarity. Turning to her dresser, she opened a small drawer in the top that contained a preloaded dust cylinder. As she loaded Myrtnaster, she heard a board in a lower floor creak.

'I knew someone was here, and Ruby is still out on a mission. I swear if Yang is trying to pull something I will skewer her, sister-in-law or no.'

After locking Myrtnaster's reloading mechanism, she put on her robe and slippers and slipped out of the bedroom.

Before she'd even taken two steps she heard a cocky masculine voice that she hadn't heard since her first Vytal festival in Vale.

"Goodnight, Sweet Cheeks."

She turned around, enraged at his crass behavior, only to be met with Mercury's gravity dust enhanced kick. The powerful kick, with the equivalent force of an enraged Ursa Major's forearm swipe, punched through her meager aura reserves and knocked her out; allowing her to fall into Emerald's waiting arms.

* * *

Ruby Schnee-Rose sighed in boredom as she unlocked her front door. Weiss would be at the Office at the SDC HQ today, and so Ruby was returning to an empty house.

Walking down a hallway, she passed one of the house phones; it had several messages. Worried that there might be an emergency, Ruby moved to pick up the phone and listen to them when suddenly it started ringing again. Ruby removed the phone from its cradle and brought it to her ear.

"Schnee-Rose Manor."

"Ruby? Oh well, where's Weiss?"

"Winter? She's supposed to be at the office today, did you call there?"

"I am 'there'; we were supposed to meet today about the mine that got destroyed last night. She's not here."

"Let me call you back, I'm not using the mobile…" She turned around to see one of the butlers handing her the mobile house phone. "Never mind, I'll transfer you right now."

After moving the phone call, Ruby started moving through the house in search of Weiss.

"I don't know where she is, Winter, that's why I'm looking. Goodness, you put even Yang's worrying to shame sometimes."

As she climbed up to the third floor, she turned down a hallway and saw Myrtnaster on the floor.

"Oh, no; we may have a problem."

"What is it, Rose?"

"Myrtnaster is on the floor outside the bedroom. It's fully loaded."

"Okay, I'll put in a missing persons report; you need to hit the ground running. Find her Ruby."

Winter disconnected the phone call, and Ruby dialed one of the few numbers she'd memorized.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Uncle Qrow; I need a big favor."

"Whaddoya need?" he slurred out.

"Either you personally, or your best tracker." She paused, and then ground out the phrase she didn't want to accept. "Someone kidnapped Weiss."

There was a pause, before the sound of a glass hitting a counter came out of the speaker. "I'll be there in 5 minutes; you are at the Manor, right?"

"Yep," she replied, popping the p.

* * *

Everyone but Caboose and Changewing flinched at the inhuman roar that echoed off the mountain.

"Hello, nice puppy," Caboose said, completely oblivious to the danger the creature represented.

Changewing wasn't so oblivious. Shifting his hand into its blaster form, he fired two shots at the beast; one hit the skull, vaporizing it, and the other hit the chest, punching a massive hole in it.

"Where did the puppy go?" Caboose remained oblivious.

"You all need to take cover; I hear more of them coming, and some sound bigger than that last one." Changewing stood up to his full height and brought both of his blasters to bear.

"Changewing, I cannot allow you to fight those things alone. Sure, you can take them on no problem, but if there are as many as you say there are even you might be overwhelmed."

He looked down at Ahsoka, and the look in her eyes convinced him to back down. "Okay then, long range weapons on the roof of the Twilight; rocket launchers and grenadiers up on the wing; melee specific and close range down here with me. If you're on the ground I want you in-between my legs, no excuses.

Washington and Carolina went up to the roof; each of them grabbed a sniper rifle from the Twilight. Ahsoka Caboose, Sarge, and Tucker stayed down with Changewing, after Epsilon convinced Caboose that he needed to "help the puppies". Grif, Simmons, Doc, Lopez, and Donut grabbed their rocket launchers, brute shot, missile pod, and seemingly infinite plasma grenades and climbed onto the wing. As soon as they did, the monsters broke from the cover of the trees.

Carolina and Washington reacted immediately, opening fire with headshots into their blood red eyes. Ahsoka, Caboose and Tucker went in, swords and fists swinging; while Sarge used his shotgun to blast entire limbs off. Simmons and Doc opened fire with their rocket launchers, targeting the bear-like monsters and larger groups. Grif focused entirely on large groups of wolves, as the armor on the bears was too thick for the Grif Shot. Donut's plasma grenades never missed their targets. Changewing maintained steady cover fire for the smaller fighters at his feet. If the opponents were bigger and he still had his full range of motion, he would be zipping all over the battle field, removing limbs and blowing holes in his foes; as it was, providing cover fire and taking out the particularly tough bears.

They continued in this way for what seemed like hours, but according to Changewing's internal chronometer was only a few minutes. During this time, Lopez, Simmons, and Doc ran out of rockets. Doc went inside to hand ammo to the snipers, while Simmons, Donut, and Lopez grabbed their battle rifles and joined their sergeant in battle.

Suddenly a battle cry was heard from the forest, before a man with blonde hair and a massive hammer arrived, flying in from their left and attacking the monsters with his hammer; every strike was accompanied with an explosion.

"What is that?" Wash asked Carolina.

"I don't know, but it works better than a gravity hammer, that's for sure."

With the arrival of the newcomer, the creatures were swiftly dealt with, ending up with the team looking at an obviously middle aged man with hair beginning to grey, leaning on his hammer like he had not a care in the world.

"Hi there; name's Tai-Yang Xiao-Long, but you can call me Tai." He looked up at Changewing, then down at Ahsoka, before looking back at the Reds and blues in their assorted colored armors, then finally turning his attention to the Twilight. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you aren't from around here."

"You could say that," Wash replied with a humorless chuckle.

"Cool, aliens. Ruby'd probably be freaking out right now; especially over you, big fella. Still, you shouldn't be out here alone, this side of the island is teeming with the Creatures of Grimm. I'm certain the inn has enough room for all of you; well, except you," he said to Changewing.

"I think I'll stay. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a bit bigger than those things."

"True enough. I doubt that the public would be too fond of you anyway. Hey, orange lady?"

Ahsoka cringed. "You can call me Ahsoka, sir. What do you need?"

"Is there any way for you to cover yourself? I doubt that the general populace would be thrilled with an alien. The rest of you I can pass off as robots."

"I'll grab my robe," she grumbled, but she understood his point. Her features were markedly striking, though Shaak Ti would be even more so.

"Me alojaré aquí también," Lopez said, before turning and entering the Twilight.

Everyone looked very confused, but before anyone could ask Donut what he might have said Tai's scroll rang.

"Hello? I'm a little busy–. You're where? _She's_ where? I'll meet you at Atlas Airship Station as soon as I can, I'll call you when I get there."

Ahsoka and Sydney had exited just in time to hear the end of his conversation. "What's wrong?"

"My daughter's wife–ˮ everyone except Sydney, Caboose and Changewing visibly flinched "–was just kidnapped, and she and her uncle need my help to find her. He looked at Ahsoka, then noticed her face. "What; got a problem with same-sex marriage?" When everyone heard that; each of them silently berated themselves for their reactions.

"No, it's just that," she paused, "it's not yet legal in the Republic."

"It's still surrounded in controversy where we're from too, even after five hundred years," added Tucker.

"Be that as it may, considering your prowess against the Grimm, I'd like your help with this. Probably only two of you though, I'll need to fly us myself."

Ahsoka and Tucker volunteered, and Ahsoka left Changewing and Carolina in charge of repairing and defending the Twilight. Then the three left and arrived at Tai-Yang's cottage, where he grabbed the keys to a small three-seated hover-craft. After they were all buckled in, he lifted off and turned north towards Atlas.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 7**

* * *

Ruby tapped her foot impatiently. She and Qrow had been sitting at the private terminal at the Atlas Air Station for almost an hour.

"Alright, Little Rose, you need to calm down. Do you honestly want to take on someone with big enough balls to kidnap the wife of the greatest huntress since your mom alone? They'll be here; your dad has to come all the way from Patch, and he's going to meet up with JNPR in Vale, and who knows where Blake and Yang went."

"Speak of the Devil, and she shall appear," said a voice from behind her.

Rub, being Ruby, perked up for all of thirty seconds. "Yang! You're here!" She slammed the blonde into a hug, who returned it with equal fervor.

"Hey, Rubes! Blake's here too."

"Yeah, Team RWBY is back together!" The smile slipped from her face. "Well, we will be."

Yang nearly fell over at how dejected Ruby looked at that moment. "It's alright, Ruby; we'll get her back. It'll be due penance for messing with Team RWBY, yeah?"

Tai-Yang's booming voice reached them before they could answer. "Of course; because we're family!"

"Dad!"

Ruby used her semblance to run to her father and hug him quickly before getting out of the way of a hug that would make wrestlers cringe. Ruby smiled at the show of obscene strength as Blake and Qrow walked up.

"Hey, old man." Qrow's speech was getting less slurred by the minute.

"Quiet you, I'm not that old." He smiled at Qrow before turning towards Blake. "And how's my favorite black-haired daughter-in-law doing? Not pregnant, I hope?"

Blake chuckled. "It's nice to see you again, sir."

"What did I say about that? No 'sir's 'til I'm fifty, alright? That's the second time today someone has called me sir. Speaking of, I'd like for you all to meet some… acquaintances of mine, who I asked to help out."

Those assembled turned and saw two of the most different people ever, if that were possible. One was wearing aqua colored armor, and the other was completely obscured by a hooded robe.

"Anyways, introductions can be made later. For now; Qrow, what leads do you have?"

"I checked Schnee's cameras, and you're not gonna like who did it."

"Who?"

"Emerald and Mercury."

"Shit."

"Exactly."

Tai sighed. "You know their last location, right?"

"I've been tracking them ever since that stunt they tried to pull at graduation. Last time I checked in on them Mercury had an apartment in Vacuo; he and Emerald are frequently spotted in the industrial district there."

Ruby interrupted them. "Then what are we waiting on? Time's a-wastin'."

She turned around and walked down a hallway marked with a rose overlaid by a snowflake. Everyone, including Tucker and Ahsoka, followed without question.

The end of the hall had a reinforced door on it with a retinal scanner, keypad, handprint scanner, and microphone for a verbal password and voice recognition. After Ruby had passed through the rigorous door, everyone took a sharp inhale at the plane that greeted them.

It was exceptionally sleek in design; an extremely sharp pointed nose belied its supersonic top speed. The wings were swept back, to decrease drag while maintaining lift. The engines were located in the wings, not under them; and were extremely long. It was painted black, with bright red trim making neat designs and a thick red line wrapped around the entire middle of the craft. Underneath the middle line in elegant calligraphy were the words _The Crimson Nebula_.

"The Crimson Nebula?" Yang asked.

"The Crimson Nebula is a High Altitude-Low Orbit hypersonic, vertical takeoff/landing craft capable of reaching speeds of Mach 4.6 at 100 meters above sea-level and speeds greater than Mach 10 at HALO. Unfortunately, Weiss said I'm only allowed to go top speed if I'm alone because my semblance apparently makes me immune to G-forces." Ruby said this with subdued excitement.

"How did you get it to go that fast?"

"Weiss and Winter were discussing the most volatile reaction in certain dust mixtures, and I asked what would happen if we could harness those volatile reactions. Weiss and Winter looked at each other, then at me, before they started writing a ton of formulas on a piece of paper. Our anniversary rolls around and I get this; It uses a mega-crystal of Wind Dust and a mega-crystal of Fire Dust as fuel. Apparently Fire and Wind aren't fans of each other and do some really cool reactions before exploding. Weiss and Winter figured out how to harness those explosions and tada! The Crimson Nebula."

"I'm gonna sound stupid, but how fast is Mach 4.6?" Yang asked.

"3,529 miles per hour; if you remember, Yang, I breached Mach 1 during Graduation to stop Cinder from killing Ozpin. That was only 767 miles an hour. We'll be at Vacuo in ten minutes."

* * *

Ruby went to the cockpit to fly the craft while everyone else stayed in the main cabin.

"Well, you can tell Weiss was in charge of design. I don't know how this thing still hits those insane speeds when it's decked out as luxuriously as this," Yang observed. "I can't wait for that rematch with Mercury, either." She noticed the newcomers sitting off to the side, and moved to join them.

"Hi, my name's Yang Xiao-Long. You know my dad?"

"Barely; this may come as a shock," Ahsoka removed her hood. "We're not from around here."

Yang gaped at the orange skinned Togruta before smirking. "Weiss owes me fifty Lien."

Now it was Ahsoka's turn to gape. "There is no way that I've been the subject of a bet on a planet I didn't even know existed."

"No, not you specifically; Weiss doesn't believe in aliens."

"Oh. I can deal with that. Anyways, my name is Ahsoka Tano, and this is… I actually don't know your first name."

"My name's Lavernius Tucker, but you can just call me Tucker."

"Well, like I said, I'm Yang; that's my wife Blake; my uncle Qrow Branwen; you already met my dad; and Ruby Schnee-Rose is our wonderful pilot."

"Attention, passengers, this is your Captain speaking. We have arrived, and the landing Zone is pretty hot so we're gonna come out swinging."

Everyone but the caped crimsonette gathered at the entrance ramp at the back of the craft. Tai hefted his hammer; Qrow shifted his sword into a scythe; Yang cocked her gauntlets; and Blake readied her katana and cleaver. Ahsoka and Tucker looked surprised at the unique weapons, before steeling themselves and activating their swords.

The jet settled to the ground, and the ramp began to lower. As soon as there was a crack of an opening in the door the sound of gunfire and metal pinging against metal made itself known.

"Did I mention the ship is completely soundproof? You probably didn't notice it," the Reaper said from where she had basically teleported to in front of them. "Okay; Yang, Dad; you two are on forward assault, hit 'em fast and hard and clear a path for Blake and I to get inside. Ahsoka, Tucker; you're in charge of our flanks. No one gets inside our formation. Uncle Qrow, you'll handle the vanguard until we enter the facility, then you'll scout ahead. I'll go forward; you and Blake will turn left and right. Yang, follow after Blake; Ahsoka with me and Tucker with Qrow; Dad, you'll stay at the entrance and run interference. Finally, try not to kill people. Ready? Go!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 8**

* * *

Ahsoka marveled at the sheer ferocity of the Xiao-Long family. Yang and Tai were up at the front, and with every blow they caused an explosion; they were both literally on fire. Blake and Ruby were right behind them, actively protecting their flanks and providing cover fire, all the while Ruby was basically teleporting all over the enemy and Blake would seemingly get hit with a fatal blow, only for another Blake to appear from nowhere and end the enemy that attacked them. Qrow used his scythe as effectively, if not as elegantly as Ruby, with each strike making its mark and not a single move going to waste.

She decided that once these people perfected space-flight they would be formidable enemies and inspiring allies.

Tucker wasn't a bad fighter either. He wasn't nearly as efficient as Qrow or as elegant as Blake and Ruby, but he wasn't taking nearly as many hits as Yang. But the more she watched, the more she realized that the more Yang got hit, the more she dished out.

Ahsoka was focused on destroying their weapons and then knocking them out with Force enhanced kicks and punches. Tucker was doing similar, but he couldn't use the Force so he was using the brute force of his armor. Through the combined efforts of an enraged, overprotective family, and plasma weapons that gave no quarter, the ragtag team was storming the base with ease.

This ease was putting Ruby on edge. They had to have known they were coming, so why was this so easy?

* * *

"Concentrate on getting everything out of here! Dust, experiments, personnel; all of it gone!" Cinder was barking orders like a madwoman, trying to make sure that Little Red Bitch didn't completely shut down her entire operation with this stunt. She was overseeing preparations of one of the last emergency bullheads when her scroll rang.

"What!?"

"Lady, take it easy, relax. I've got Adam; we're in Vale awaiting transportation."

"Change of plans Roman. Black and Yellow are already out and about and our current HQ has been compromised. Relocate to the outer Menagerian location."

"I don't have any contacts in Menagerie! What's that? You still do? Okay then, we'll be there, Lady Cinder. See you then."

She put away the scroll with a sigh.

"Milady."

"Yes?"

"The last bullhead is being prepped. If you plan on leaving, now is the time."

"Thank you. Let's be off, then. Set the self destruct."

The last thing she thought of as she left was how pissed her Master would be at this setback.

* * *

Ruby had finally figured out why it was so easy; they were retreating. Everyone that had gone down the other two hallways had fallen back in with her, reporting troops running and destroying everything they saw. Computers, chemistry setups; they targeted these before they targeted the family. Qrow had also figured out where Weiss was: the detention blocks at the back of the building, which was where they were headed now.

As they broke into a hangar bay, they saw a bullhead take off with crates of dust and some personnel on board. Ruby was the first one in the room, and therefore was able to see the golden-eyed woman pilot the bullhead away.

As everyone else entered, they noticed that the remaining enemies had left. Ruby sped off to the back of the warehouse, while the others spread out to see if they could salvage any information.

Ahsoka watched as Ruby exited one of the hallways; carrying a white haired girl in tattered pajamas limply in her arms.

"Okay, objective completed; let's get going people, this place is on a self destruct countdown," Ruby announced as she gingerly stepped over the debris in her path, clearly trying not to jostle her wife. "Before she passed out she said she had something to tell me, but she's going into Aura Lock, so we need to get her out of now. The nearest hospital that can effectively treat Aura Lock is in Vale, so we'll be seeing Team JNPR again. Winter is also on her way, so let's not keep them waiting."

They all left the building, with Ahsoka using the Force to move any survivors she felt to a safe distance. Once they were inside the plane, The Crimson Nebula lifted off and sped into the night. Seconds later, the entire facility exploded.

* * *

Weiss slowly woke up to a warm, heavy weight on her hand. As she got her eyes to focus, she turned to see what was crushing her hand.

She saw her wife, sitting in a chair, drooling softly as she slept with Weiss's hand clasped firmly in both of hers.

Rolling her eyes, Weiss took in her surroundings: a stark, clinical color scheme, as well as the smell, let her know that she was in a hospital or infirmary. Where that hospital or infirmary was, though, was the big question.

She felt a stirring beside her, and so turned to look at her wife as she woke up.

"Good morning, Ruby."

"Good morning, Weiss," she replied groggily, before noticing that she was awake.

"Hi Weiss; I'll be right back, the rest of the guys told me to tell them when you got up."

Triggering her semblance, she was gone for all of ten seconds before returning. A few moments after that, and everyone Weiss considered her family piled in the room after her.

Yang and Blake; Winter; Tai; Qrow; Jaune and Pyrrha and their new baby; and Nora and Ren all walked into the room, gently shushing each other.

Weiss smiled, before steeling herself. "I'm so glad all of you came, it means I'll only have to say this once."

"Say what, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"Cinder is back; I have doubts she ever truly left. But the worst part is this: she's making Grimm out of Dust."

* * *

Cinder; a middling height, bald, male hologram that was next to her; and a tall robotic looking hologram behind her; were all deeply bowed before the hologram of Darth Sidious.

"You have failed me, Cinder. I do not take kindly to failures." He spoke slowly, and softly, adding intimidation to his already enraged demeanor. "How can you be sure that they did not discover your true purpose?"

Making sure not to lift her head, she responded. "We destroyed the Vacuo facility, Master. It is a setback, but it is less of one than allowing the Hunters to find out where the Grimm truly come from."

"Good. Even though you failed, you mitigated the damage caused by that failure and thereby saved your neck." He gave her neck a quick squeeze with the Force for emphasis, before turning to the others. "And what of you two, any more failures I should be aware of?"

The man spoke up first. "The Jedi have left Earth for Sanghelios; nothing else to report."

The robot spoke up next. "Megatron has left the planet in search of something; he won't tell me what it is. Be that as it may, I am currently in control of all Decepticon forces; what are your orders, my Lord?"

"Keep the pressure on the Autobots, but do not wipe them out, yet. They are still of use to us." He paused, then added, "You all have your tasks, and I have mine. Be gone."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 9**

 **A/N: I've broken some rules in the HALO universe. The Arbiter's plasma swords don't have a battery life, much like a lightsaber. Also, the Keys from RvB don't have a battery life either. I might do some lore with that.**

* * *

The hooded figure bowed low to his Master. "You have summoned me, My Lord?"

"Was the Rule of Two, set in place by Darth Bane, not clear? You failed to properly kill me, yet you have not one but two apprentices and two inquisitors, and plan to sacrifice all of them in the pursuit of one who might not even turn to the Dark Side. You are moving against the Republic too early."

"I promise you, my Lord, this plan will not fail."

"In that case, if it does, your life will be forfeit and I will continue the training of one of your apprentices. You are spreading yourself too thin; with the discovery of these other space-faring planets the Separatists are no longer a viable plan. If it does succeed, I will be very surprised. Be mindful of the galaxy at large; there is more here than we understand. I must go; I will be outside of all communications range for some time, but I only have the capability to carry one of my prisoners. I am leaving the other here in the core. Make sure the prisoner does not escape."

"Yes, my Lord."

* * *

Anakin and Obi-Wan stood on the bridge of the Nexus as she flew through Hyperspace on the way to Sanghelios. They were discussing a disturbing report, or lack thereof, of the UNSC marines that accompanied Ahsoka.

"And you're sure this is accurate?" Anakin asked.

"According to Admiral Hood," Cody began, "Agent Carolina never misses a field report unless she is deep under cover or out of communications range. Considering the fact that we know where Cybertron is, thanks to Changewing, it is reasonable to assume they never arrived. The UNSC also reported no destroyed craft in their systems, meaning that wherever they are, they are either intact or… beyond recovery."

"No. I refuse to believe that, I would have felt Ahsoka's passing. When we arrive at Sanghelios I'll take a Cruiser and find them."

"Where will you look? You know that ships are almost untraceable through Hyperspace," replied Obi-Wan.

Anakin smirked. "The Force will guide me, Master."

He sighed, "Of course it will."

"Generals, we're coming up on Sanghelios."

"Good," said Anakin.

As the star trails faded and the sub-light engines kicked in, everyone reeled as they saw a dusty orange planet being assaulted by several of what the IFF identified as Covenant Battle-cruisers.

Anakin was the first to recover. "Change of plans; Admiral, bring the ships into Red Alert, Cody prepare the Troopers. Get Rex and a small battalion and meet us at one of the gunships."

"Yes sir!"

Obi-Wan had moved forward to the technicians operating the bridge. "Do we have any idea of finding out which ship is the flagship?"

"Probably the big one that has an escort," replied one of the scanner technicians.

"Thank you, soldier. Anakin, I've got a target; we'll be flying to the ship that's crawling with defenses. I recommend that we grab the Deltas and escort the Clones."

"Good, go down and prep them, I'll be right behind you. Admiral, hold fire on the flagship for as long as possible."

"Where are you– oh blast it all."

* * *

Anakin arrived at his destination quickly; he didn't have time to stay as long as he wanted. He knocked on the door, and it was opened from within by Padmé.

"Sanghelios is under attack by the Covenant. Obi-Wan and I are going to escort a group of Clones to the flagship and attempt to bring them down."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Well, I'd rather not go gallivanting off without telling you first. Besides, these are completely new enemies wielding vastly different weapons, if I didn't see you and then I didn't return–ˮ

"No, Ani; don't say things like that. You're a Jedi; what could anything in this part of the galaxy have that could hope to stand up to that?"

"Well when you put it that way," he chuckled, then leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss on her lips. "I will come back," he said when they separated. "I promise."

"You'd better. Now get going, Obi-Wan's probably waiting for you."

"As you wish, milady," he replied.

* * *

Anakin jogged into the hangar just as the last of the Clones that were to accompany them boarded the gunship.

"It's about time you got here; you said you were right behind me."

"Had some business to attend to, Master; what did I miss?"

"Nothing much, just a communiqué from the planet; they are sending one of their phantoms to rendezvous with us. We'll be escorting both them and the clones to the flagship."

"What's the formation?"

"Given the size, armor and armament of the phantom, you and I will flank the gunship while the phantom takes the rear."

"Alright then, let's saddle up."

* * *

The three craft exited the top hatch just as the phantom arrived. The communicators on each craft squawked before synchronizing.

"Attention Republic vessels, this is the Arbiter of the Swords of Sanghelios. Do you copy?"

"Loud and clear, Arbiter; my name is General Obi-Wan Kenobi, and my wing-man is General Anakin Skywalker."

"You have my deepest thanks for arriving at this time and armed as such, Generals. My sources indicate this is all that remains of the Covenant Armada; how do you feel your two destroyers will fare against it?"

"They'll do their job so we can do ours. What sort of projectiles are the Covenant ships using?"

"Typically plasma rounds, some energy weapons; the Brutes also use hammers and explosives that are much more savage than a normal Covenant unit."

"Thanks for the heads up. Shall we?"

The two Delta-7B's accelerated hard to take a lead position diagonally in front of the gunship, while the phantom fell in line behind them and prepared it's turrets for battle.

"We must do this operation quickly. If whoever is in charge feels he is losing, he will decide to just glass the whole planet rather than accept defeat. Have your ships target the bottom of the bow of the capital ship first and foremost."

"Understood, Arbiter," replied Anakin, before he relayed the message to the Admiral.

"Master Jedi, we've got incoming bogeys on our scopes!"

"Roger that, Commander; Anakin, you and I will peel off and take out as many of the banshees as we can. Cody, weapons hot, we won't need them when we get inside the ship."

Anakin and Obi-Wan peeled off from the main group, firing quick bursts to get the banshees' attention. What they didn't count on was their lasers tearing through the ships like tissue paper.

"Arbiter what kind of armor do these ships have? I was under the impression that the Covenant had shielding almost on par with our own?"

"Their shields aren't up; I think we might have some helpers in the Covenant ranks. The Lekgolo and Unggoy have respected the Sangheili since their induction into the Covenant; they could have turned against the Jiralhanae."

"Be that as it may, we can't let this opportunity go to waste. Anakin, Cody, weapons free."

The four craft surged forwards once again, this time obliterating everything in their path. Eventually they made it to the battle-cruisers, where Anakin made the suggestion that they should stay as close as possible to the cruisers to minimize flak from their heavy cannons. They hugged the side of cruiser after cruiser until they reached the flagship.

"Pardon me, Generals, but we've just received a transmission on a high frequency signal. They're giving us landing coordinates."

"Where are they?"

"The port side of the main hangar bay; I'll lead you in when we are too close for the point defenses to target us."

When the arranged time came the phantom pulled ahead of the three republic vessels and led them to a small platform near the bow on the portside of the largest hangar bay they'd ever seen. The small platform they were going to could easily accommodate more than twenty gunships. As it was, it easily held room for the four vessels with room to spare. On a walkway leading to the landing platform were two towering figures and several small ones. As soon as their gear touched down, the Jedi opened their cockpit canopies and climbed out, wary of a trap.

The Arbiter walked up from the bay door on the phantom. "Generals, these are the Hunters, also known as the Mgalekgolo. They are made up entirely of a colony of worm-like creatures, and are very hard to kill. Behind them we have the Grunts, or the Unggoy. They make up the bulk of the covenant's forces. And if I am correct, they have both just seceded from the covenant."

One of the hunters stomped forward and spoke to the Arbiter in a strange, hissing dialect, and the Arbiter responded in kind.

"They said that all hunters and grunts are on a timer. They are going to revolt against the Brutes and Jackals in roughly ten minutes time. That is both on the surface and here in the ships."

Anakin turned towards R2-D2. "Inform the Admiral that he needs to cease hostilities against the covenant in ten minutes," he said before turning back around. "So what do we do for ten minutes?"

"We wait, and we plan," replied the Arbiter. "Then we get into position."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 10**

 **A/N: A bigger, jumpy chapter since I've been gone so long. Don't be a Music Major, kids. It ruins lives.**

* * *

The sound of his shotgun going off was music to his own ears. Even if the standard issue earplugs muffled it a little bit.

Ryan "Joker" Higgins was nearly laughing at how easy the Covenant was making it to kill them this go-around. The Hunters and Grunts had changed sides, and the Brutes' shields were shorting out much faster than normal; almost as if they'd been tampered with. That didn't mean it was child's play; this was still war. People still died, were maimed, and went missing. But that wasn't going to stop the UNSC and the Swords of Sanghelios from thrashing the Covenant in one final battle.

Ryan tossed a plasma grenade he had picked up from a fallen jackal towards a group of them hiding behind a rock formation; it landed square on the forehead of the one in the middle. The three surrounding him were too shocked to do anything, so they all met the same fate.

Ryan looked up and surveyed the battlefield. The ships that had dropped off the Covenant forces were now the only things left that had enemy troops near them, and most of those were being destroyed by the Hunters' Fuel Rod Cannons.

"Hey, Ryan."

"What's up, Sepp?"

"I'm just a little curious about why they even tried. This is the home-world of the Elites, they didn't stand a chance. Plus, they brought a capital ship but aren't glassing the whole planet yet? It seems suspicious."

"Look, Sepp; don't ask questions you don't want the answer to."

Right as he stopped talking, a beam of light came down from space.

"Good going, idiot. Lets hope the Sangheili know what they're doing."

* * *

The Arbiter's swords flashed and hummed as he slashed through the Brutes standing in his way. None could stand before him for long; their failing shields thanks to the Grunts' meddling allowed him to slash through them almost as easily as the Flood.

"We must hurry! If the battle on the surface fares as poorly as this one, I fear they will cut their losses and glass the surface!"

"Glass?" asked Anakin from beside him.

"It was an old method for destroying the Flood, but is now an effective orbital super-weapon." The ship gave a shudder. "That seems to have been deployed against us now; we must move quickly, the bridge is just up this corridor."

* * *

"Fascinating. The newest subject has fully integrated into its frame. Spark levels are steadily climbing into projected acceptable levels to power a frame this size. My decision to use a highly adaptable scout-class femme seems to be paying off well. I will have to keep an eye on the levels to make sure she doesn't overload. Assistant," called Shockwave. He was in the innermost layer of his lab, where only he, Megatron, Soundwave, and his newest assistant, Spyblade were allowed access. This room was where he had succeeded in creating the first Dinobots, and where he had finally succeeded in creating a superior Dinobot. Now if only he could get the thing to obey him.

"Yes, sir?" replied Spyblade from his workstation. He was currently coding viruses into the daggers he always had in subspace.

"Monitor the subject's vitals, make sure she doesn't overload. Megatron will want to learn of this development."

Spyblade remained seated as Shockwave left the lab, locking each door behind him. When Blade's enhanced audio receptors heard the slam of the final door, only then did he look up. Maintaining eye contact with the door in front of him, he reached into his subspace and pulled out his private communicator. As soon as it was powered on, he keyed the mike.

"Attention, Autobot Swoop, repeat, Autobot Swoop, this is Virus, repeat, this is Virus, do you copy?"

Spyblade, under the alias of Virus, has been scheming with the Lightning Strike Coalition Force to kill Shockwave, something Grimlock had wanted to do since he had been experimented on and turned into the beast he was today. Spyblade, for his part, was simply power hungry and believed he could do Shockwave's job better than he could. He'd managed a lot of his promotions this way: murdering or setting up the previous place holder. The only reason Shockwave hadn't heard of Spyblade's… questionable… past was because of his own pride and Spyblade's impeccable skill at _not_ being the one to get his hands dirty.

"Loud and clear, Virus. This is Swoop, the rest of us are in position, ready to make our move."

"Good. I'll ping when Shockwave returns and sends me on an errand. Feel free to trash the place, just leave the inner sanctum alone, like you promised."

"What if Shocker's in there?"

"Draw him out; it shouldn't be too difficult. Smash some other experiments, free an Autobot or two, I don't care. I want him dead, and if you can't do it I'll alert the whole base to your presence here. He's returning, be alert."

The final door opened just as Spyblade feigned finishing up the coding on his dagger, placing it back in the hidden subspace near his wrists.

"I would have expected you to have finished that faster. Incapable assistants are not dealt with kindly in my department." He gestured to the various Decepticons that shared cells with slowly offlining Autobots. "No matter, I need you to bring this report to Commander Starscream. Soundwave wants to see what he makes of it, but I have more important things to do."

As he locked the last door behind him, he pulled the mike out long enough to whisper one word.

"Go."

Not ten seconds later things were exploding. Transforming, he flew out a ventilation shaft to escape the carnage. After all, it wouldn't do to die because the Dinobots didn't know who he was.

* * *

"I'm running out of Energon," said Changewing.

"What's that?" Weiss asked.

"It's my fuel; it's the fuel for my entire race. Without it, I will die. Which is why I was asking if you had a large barrel, canister, or anything really."

"What do you mean, is there Energon here?"

"Possibly, but I have my own back-up. Although, it's not for the faint of heart, so I'd recommend not watching when I get it."

"Can you use that dust container? It should be empty."

"Yeah, I'll have to cut the top off." Deploying his left arm sword, he cut the container off. Then he looked back at all the humans, Faunus, and the Togruta present. "This is the part you shouldn't watch," he said, and then he turned back around, moved his upper right arm above the container and cut deep into it.

"What are you doing?" asked the shocked members of the crowd. "Are you going to drink your own blood?"

"If you must know, this is a separate fuel tank used specifically for my heavy weapons. It may be weapons grade, but I'll drink anything at this point."

Ruby chose that moment to speak up, having been mystified by the glowing blue liquid flowing out of the large gash in Changewing's arm. "Different grades?"

"High, medium, low, weapons, and medical grade Energon. Each has a different taste and purpose. Weapons grade tastes the worst, but I _can_ drink it, so I will. After that, I'll scan the planet for more Energon, and go get it."

As the last of the Energon flowed from his wound, he picked up the container and drank a large gulp, before pulling it away and grimacing. Then he guzzled the rest.

"Okay, I'll be back in a week or two. It'll take a while for me to find Energon on this rock." So he turned away and limped towards the North Mountains of Atlas.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 11**

 **A/N: I'm so sorry about the wait. My excuses include, but are not limited to: phone troubles and Thanksgiving, Finals, and Failing Grades. Hopefully this problem does not persist. (It probably will. Sorry)**

 **Also, instead of Admiral Parangosky starting the Spartan IV program and Jun and Muso completing it, I decided that Jun would be needed elsewhere…**

* * *

Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the Arbiter cut through the doors to the bridge with relative ease, then Anakin Force-pushed them into the room beyond, allowing the three sword wielders to jump in and attack the Brutes within.

The Arbiter was a flurry of swords, using two plasma blades he quickly dispatched any and all resistance, before rounding on the Chieftain in the room.

This Chieftain was different from all before him. He carried the same ancient hammer that Tartarus did, and had the same glowing hair.

The Arbiter narrowed his eyes, before moving around to flank the Jiralhanae Chieftain. Before he could take two steps, however, the brute rushed him, bringing his hammer around in a wide, sweeping blow that the Arbiter had no time to dodge.

Until a blue lightsaber flew out of nowhere, decapitating the brute.

As the Arbiter jumped over the still moving corpse, he spun around to see the blade return to Anakin's hand right in time for him to remove the head of the only remaining brute standing.

"Many thanks, Master Jedi," said the Arbiter as he strode over and swiftly shut off the glass emitter. "Now, what do we do with the Fist of Rukt?"

"Come again?" asked Obi-Wan.

"This hammer," replied the Sangheili.

"Why not destroy it?" Anakin asked.

"To destroy it would break the back of Jiralhanae resistance, leaving only the Kig-yar, who would undoubtedly surrender. Yes, I shall destroy it." He raised his sword in preparation to cut it to pieces when suddenly green lasers blasted holes in the viewports of the ship. As the swordsmen grabbed onto nearby consoles to prevent being sucked out into space, a black and grey mechanical hand reached inside and plucked the hammer from where it fell, before pulling out just in time for the emergency bulkheads to close on the damaged viewports, resealing the room.

"Or you can tell them that it was lost to space…" said Anakin.

"I have that option as well, now. It might serve the same purpose. I shall use the head of the Chieftain as proof."

* * *

Changewing cursed loudly as his aching joints nearly brought him to his knees.

"Frag it all to the Pits, why did the only Energon contact have to be up in these frozen mountains?"

Trudging through the snow is difficult enough, but considering his lack of Energon and injuries had locked one of his knees, the other was frozen, and his peds were mostly wheel, it was nearly impossible for the former mercenary. The only thing that kept him going was the fact that just over the next ridge was where the HUD on his visor said the Energon was. As he crested the rise, he looked down the hill to see what he was up against.

It was a downed Decepticon transport, of an early model, if the early emblem was anything to go by. Unlocking the bearings in his wheeled peds he slid down the ridge to the ship. Entering through the open bay door, he stepped gingerly over the fallen Vehicon soldiers on his way to the cockpit. Once there, he powered on the log and ships manifest, surprised they were both intact. According to the manifest, this ship was carrying Energon from one of the moons of Cybertron.

Confused as to why a transport would be all the way out here, he checked the log. The log stated that after a normal launch, the ship was attacked and boarded, before being piloted to a remote planet where two organics were picked up, before being piloted to the center of the galaxy where one of the organics was dropped off, before once again being piloted to this planet, where the pilot abandoned it to crash here.

Intrigued, Changewing shut down the systems once again before unlocking the cargo door at the rear of the craft. Sliding gingerly around, he found several containers of refined and unrefined Energon, as well as a stasis pod the perfect size for a human, and a crate willed with armor similar to the Reds and Blues, however it was a calm green in color, and had more customizations on it than Carolina's. Kneeling down, he was surprised to discover that the vital signs were all green, meaning that whoever was in there was still alive.

Deciding that this was too big a find to leave in the cold, he used his shortwave comm to call Ruby.

"Come in Red, this is Wings. Repeat, Red, do you copy? Over."

"Loud and clear, Wings. What seems to be the problem?"

"I've found some Energon, but it's too much for me to carry on my own. I'm thinking if you've got something bigger than a bullhead it'll be able to handle it."

"Sure thing; the SDC just finished production of the first line of Mega-freighters I'll have Winter send one to your location."

"Good. Thanks Red, I'll see ya later. Out."

Sighing in relief, he cracked open one of the canisters of refined Mid-grade before drinking as much as his starving tanks could handle, then drinking more to fill his recently healed arm tank. When he set the canister down, he marveled at the fact that he'd already drained more than half of it.

"I hope the cons use bigger canisters nowadays, these things are puny."

Deciding to sit and wait on the transport, he settled down next to the stasis pod and pulled the Energon closer to him for when his tanks had refined enough Energon to warrant him drinking the rest.

* * *

Spyblade stood at salute as Starscream sneered down at him.

"So, Spyblade; another superior officer has offlined just in time for you to be promoted. How… coincidental," said the Seeker in his smooth voice.

"Yes, Commander, how coincidental. However, if you are trying to insinuate that I had something to do with this, then maybe you should levy accusations at me in public instead of, say…" Spyblade instantly sprung into action, jumping around and behind the other seeker and jabbing a viral dagger into the joint between his neck and wings, "…meeting the dangerous individual alone. Don't worry," he said as he dropped off the seeker, "that particular virus wont offline you, as long as I don't let it. You're not directly in my chain of command, after all. That is, _if_ you make a good case to Soundwave about why I should be promoted to Senior Science Officer and not Knockout. Meet that one, simple demand and you'll live a long, prosperous life. Deny my request, and you'll offline slowly, in pain, over the course of megacycles. Which will it be?"

Starscream looked flabbergasted. He couldn't believe that one of _his_ soldiers had just infected him with a virus. Still, it had happened, and if there was one thing Starscream wanted more than both Megatron's approval and Megatron's head, it was his own life.

"There's no need to be hasty, in fact, I was simply going to ask where you wanted your lab after your predecessor's unfortunate demise destroyed almost the entire old one."

"Good choice, Screamer."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 12**

 **A/N: So sorry these take so long. I know some of you may be having withdrawals (I'm looking at you Kyoko), and I promise that over Christmas break I'll be writing more. Maybe. I'm a terrible person, so don't kill me if I don't.**

* * *

"Madam President, I'm not sure that I should be the one to preside over this," said Padmé as her handmaidens finished preparing her ceremonial makeup and hair dress. "I'm not exactly up to date on the state of affairs regarding the origin of this war."

"I'll explain it to you as much as I can, then turn it over to Chairman Hargrove until the signing of the treaty; he'll be able to brief you on more than I can. I've lived on Earth my whole life; the war didn't make it here till the very end. Charon Industries, however, has had its hands in almost every aspect of the war; they even own all of the assets from the former Freelancer Initiative, also known as the Insurrection."

"Still, are you sure that you want me to mediate the peace talks?"

"Sure thing; if anyone is qualified, it's you."

 **Later**

The Arbiter, Admiral Hood, President Charet, and Chairman Malcolm Hargrove sat on one side of a table; behind each of them were their personal security details. On the other side were the Minister of Generosity with his detail and Zuk'tiis, the highest ranking official remaining to the Jiralhanae. He sat alone, but a gravity hammer rested at his side. At the head of the table sat Padmé in full senatorial regalia, and behind her stood Obi-Wan and several clones.

"Greetings, esteemed leaders of the Covenant and the United Earth Government," began Senator Amidala. "We are here today to discuss the surrender and immediate cessation of hostilities in all territories. Madam President, if you will present your first draft?"

"Thank you, Senator. Gentleman, in accordance with this treaty, all hostilities will come to an end; all formerly warring systems will be inducted into the Galactic Republic and will choose a senator or a representative if that system wishes to remain allied with another. The Kig-yar will be confined to their home-world and put on probationary status to be terminated at the end of a ten standard year period. The Unggoy will be put on a similar, one year probation. The Lekgolo will be released back to their home-world to behave as they see fit. The Jiralhanae will be confined to their home-world and surrounding colonies until either the Galactic Senate votes to release them or if they decide to combat the Confederacy of Independent Systems in alliance with the Galactic Republic and Her interests. The San'Shyuum will not be afforded that luxury; until such time as the Senate releases your people, you are to be considered a threat to the galaxy and confined to your home-world. Is anything here unsatisfactory?"

"Unsatisfactory?" began the Minister. "Unsatisfactory? I'll tell you what's unsatisfactory! You mean to confine us to one planet? I'm in control of entire _systems_ of planets. You can't possibly think you can control the destinies of beings with whom you have never dealt with!"

"Minister, I grow tired of your quibbling. Take this _generous_ offer while you still have your pathetic, miserable excuse for a life." Zuk'tiis turned towards the rest of the members of the table. "The Jiralhanae accept on behalf of the entire Covenant. May the Senate have mercy."

Admiral Hood leaned back, clearly impressed. "That's not the response I expected, Chieftain. What made you accept?"

"He did," said Zuk'tiis as he gestured to Obi-Wan. "I watched them battle their way through our ranks. Though the Arbiter's shields absorbed many hits, the two Jedi were never even touched. Their battle awareness is unmatched; if there are more of them I do not want my people to deal with them."

Obi-Wan looked startled at this revelation, but no one noticed save for Chairman Hargrove. Senator Amidala, on the other hand, began handing out copies of the Treaty of Sanghelios. All but the Minister signed without fuss.

* * *

His eyes opened slowly; the light hurt them. He could barely feel or remember anything. He remembered getting off a pelican and investigating something on his motion trackers. The last thing he remembered was a sharp pain to the back of his head.

As his blurry vision cleared, he could see a red-headed woman leaning over him.

"Good morning Noble Three. Are you okay?"

"My head hurts a little," Jun said as he sat up. "All I remember is being hit so hard I passed out."

"One blow and you were out like a light? Even through all of your shielding and armor?"

"Yes; curious, isn't it? I've never heard of something that had the exact amount of force to break through a shield and knock someone out through their armor."

"Oh well. One of my new contacts is the one who found you in a mountain range on this planet. He's currently recovering from exposure to the cold and starvation."

"Why was he in the cold anyway?"

"He was retrieving food that only he can eat. You'll understand when you meet him, but for now you need to rest. You were in stasis for an extremely long time. Your body is not ready for activity."

"Good night, then."

"Good night, Jun…"

* * *

"Hello, Sister. Are you ready to tell us how you destroyed the moon?"

"Don't you remember? You were there."

"You beat the memory out of me, Sister dearest."

"Then I'll never tell you. If you've forgotten and Cinder won't tell you, then you don't need to know.

"Really? What a shame. I guess it's time we try something new. Tell me, Sister, Have you ever fought Grimm while shackled to a wall? I'm sure you can do it, but on the off chance you don't survive, I'll make sure to parade your broken, battered body in front of your daughter, in order to break her spirit before I kill her. And if either of your lovers attempts to help you, then they too will die. Lackey, send in the beowolves."

"So this is the thanks I get? After convincing mother and father to adopt you, you poor, wretched soul..."

* * *

… _Changewing…_

Huh?

… _Changewing…_

Who's there?

 _Finally, he can hear us. Say hello, Quicksilver._

 _Hello, Quicksilver._

 _Stop goofing around! I doubt we have much time._

Girls? Is that you?

 _Of course it's us, Loverboy. Who else alive would be able to access your inner spark?_

I must be in something close to a coma if I can hear you guys and we aren't even Mated yet.

 _Actually, you might be closer to Cybertron than you think. We started feeling your emotions again a couple days ago._

I haven't felt any of yours.

 _That's because ours aren't combat in nature. Prime took us off the front lines because your mission is so important._

Thank him for me.

 _Yeah, yeah, Loverboy; Anyway, we just wanted to let you know that you need to hurry. The whole Autobot army has fallen back to Iacon, and Optimus has given the go ahead on the Ark Initiative. Oh, and Alpha Trion was assassinated._

And Flashback didn't prevent it?

 _He can't. Someone's been blocking him, as if they want certain events to pan out in a certain way._

Well, thanks for telling me. How is Optimus taking it? He's likely the last living Prime now, unless some of the other Thirteen are purposefully ignoring our plight.

 _He seems more subdued; likely the only one who truly knows how bad he's taking it is Elita-1._

I expected as much. Do you think you can get Flashback or Wind Ryder to come looking for me?

 _Why?_

I'm in a bit of a predicament. The help I've gathered and I are stuck on a planet that has never made it to space.

 _Sucks to be you. I'll ask Optimus if we can spare Flash, you know he won't send Ryder when Ryder is the only one keeping out Soundwave's hackers._

…Is Octane there?

 _Nope. He's still not back from wherever he went. Face it, wings; Octane never liked the war, he got out and stayed out._

You don't know that. What if he got hurt, or sucked into a black hole, Primus forbid.

 _Wings, you need to let him go. We understand that he was your first friend and mentor besides the two twins after… well, you know; but he was never cut out for full scale war. After what I've done, I'm surprised you roped Silver and I into this, but frankly I'm glad you did. We get a Sparkmate, after all._

 _What Merc is trying to say is that in all likelihood Octane trained a successor then left. What did he teach you, anyway?_

I swore never to tell. That doesn't include Sparkmates, though or future ones. He taught me the secrets of mixing Energon and how dangerous it can be, and he gave me several of his formulas. It's how I can use near limitless amounts of Red Energon, there's a formula that uses Synthetic and Pure energon that stabilizes the consumption rate while maintaining ninety percent of the speed increase. Speaking of, make sure i have a cube of that waiting for me upon my return, please?

 _Already on it. Would we be able... to... use..._

Changewing's optics shot open.

"Frag it all. I'll tell them later. Right now I've got to get to Cybertron."

* * *

 **Sorry that I'm a terrible author. Good news is this is officially my longest story. Also has the longest plan, so, there's that as wall. Covenant is done, who is next? Who are the Sisters? Who is blocking Flashback's apparent abilities? Find out next time, on Dragon Ball— er, I mean, Galactic Civil War. Also, like, zero action in this chapter. Sorry. Not everything is PEW PEW PEW MURICA in this story. As I told someone earlier, several plot points that are introduced in these "empty" chapters are necessary later. Peace.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 13**

 **Okay, so, of the original five universi, we've "fixed" one, and if you follow Bungie's story line it was nearly done on its own. Considering this fic is about taking care of all five, we've got some ways to go. In any case, on to the next chapter.**

* * *

Anakin stood behind the Pilot's chair in the Republic cruiser, where a Clone pilot sat monitoring the Hyperspeed jump that would hopefully bring them to the Cybertronian System.

"From a dust bowl to a metal warzone; this sector is filled with interesting places, isn't it General?" asked Rex from where he sat beside him.

"If Changewing's coordinates are correct. I'm still not sure if I trust him. How do we know who's who in their war? Further, why did Ahsoka and the Reds and Blues drop off the grid?"

"I don't know, sir; but I don't think you should immediately distrust just because he's different. Wouldn't General Kenobi tell you something about your feelings if he were here?"

"Yeah, Rex, he would. Speaking of feelings, though, I'm starting to feel something; something big."

"We're coming up on the coordinates, General," said the pilot as he brought the ship out of Hyperspace.

As the star trails disappeared and the ship slowed to a near stop, all aboard were floored by the beauty of the planet before them. Reflecting in the light of its bright blue star, the blue lights covering the planet were mesmerizing. A particularly bright and large light at the center of one of the many circular areas held Anakin's interest. He could feel the Force here better than anywhere else, including silent meditation in the middle of the Jedi Temple; and something deep within him told him that that large light had something to do with it.

"Pilot, put us in a planet synchronized orbit. Don't go any lower than this height. I'm going to go meditate."

Rex looked at him like he'd grown a second head, because in all of his experience the headstrong Jedi rarely meditated.

Anakin stepped into his cabin and locked the door behind him, then sat on the ground and opened his mind to the Force.

He could feel everything. _Everything._ The lights of trillions of living things bombarded his senses and he nearly lost his concentration from the sheer _noise_ of it all. He could feel the members of his crew, the beings on the planet below, the plants and beings on the nearest planet; he could feel the Jedi Temple, shining bright like a beacon of Light side force, he could see darkness in the Senate building, completely enshrouding several planets within and without the Galaxy; he could see differences in color of the beings. While the members of his ship looked white tinged with purple, the Cybertronians were blue tinged. But what shocked him the most was that if most of the lights were candles there were two bonfires within his perception. One a soft white, with underlying blue; the other a dark, malevolent purple.

Deciding to experiment, he attempted to focus on the light nearest him. As he delved deeper and deeper into the Force, he was suddenly bombarded with the feelings, the _thoughts, and_ _ **the memories**_ of Captain Rex.

 _This is the first time he's meditated of his own volition in a long time._

 _Yes! I'm going to be a Captain!_

" _CT-7567, Please refrain from shooting other students' targets before they can…"_

Opening his eyes with a start, Anakin breathed heavily for several moments trying to catch up to what he had just seen. Deciding that there was some sort of Force Beacon on the planet below, he slowed his breathing and resumed his meditations.

As the bright lights returned, he decided to see if he could cast out a more specific search. Before he could even attempt, however, a bright light flooded his mortal senses and he jumped up into a standing position to see what had happened.

The first thing he noticed was that he was no longer in his cabin. While that should have alarmed him, he felt oddly at peace.

The second thing he noticed was that he was standing in a white void. Looking around, he could see nothing of note, so he closed his eyes and attempted to meditate.

"I wouldn't do that here, if I were you."

Anakin's eyes snapped open and he whirled around to see an older version of a Cybertronian.

"Why? And who are you?"

"To the second question, the answer is Alpha Trion, Archivist of the Thirteen. To the first question, you are currently between dimensions. If you were to meditate as deeply as you did to catch my colleagues' attention, then you would sense every being in every universe that lives, has lived, or will live. Untold trillions of zetabytes of data will be dumped into your helm, er, head in a matter of moments. You would more than likely be reduced to a babbling fool who would no longer be useful for what we need."

Anakin stood dumbfounded. "What do you need?"

"We need Changewing back on Cybertron; unfortunately, he keeps getting side tracked," said a new, deeper, more commanding voice.

When Anakin turned again he noticed several more Cybertronians. Nine more titans moved to stand next to Alpha Trion. The largest, towering over each of the others easily, spoke again.

"My name is Prima, The First Prime. We are ten of the Thirteen original Primes. Those that are not present are either traitors, and reside within the Anti-Spark, or still reside on your physical plane of existence. **(A/N: who can guess who the missing 3 are?)** We have summoned you because you are the only being in the galaxy currently capable of bringing Changewing back to Cybertron."

"What's so important about Changewing?"

"In part, his ability to lead with a cool head and his kindness to others; however, our greatest need for him is the help he is bringing to our home to end the war. Megatron plans to poison the core with Dark Energon, a vile substance that will kill the bright blue light you saw in your meditations."

"I don't remember a solid blue light; there was a white one with underlying blue."

"Those were separate in nature, but too close for you to discern them," said Alpha Trion.

"You need to help us; we have passed on from your world and can no longer assist in protecting our Father. When you return to your world, you will have to souls to find; the closer one is Changewing, the second you can find after Changewing has been safely brought to the current Prime. However, you will not remember meeting us or any of this conversation save for knowing you must retrieve Changewing. Good luck, and may the Allspark Light Your Path."

* * *

 **A/N: Well. This just kinda happened. I was gonna do something else, but the opportunity for** _ **this**_ **presented itself and I said eff it. Hope you like, but it is a little shorter than normal.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 14**

 **A/N: Yeah, we're still in a dry spell as far as action is concerned. Sorry.**

* * *

Anakin's eyes shot open once again. Every time he closed them, he could see two lights; one seemingly large and close; the other far away and much smaller.

Sighing, he walked out of his cabin and turned towards the mess hall, where he found several UNSC Marines lounging with some of the Clones. Of particular note, Fives and one of the Marines, named Ryan, were playing sabacc. Or rather, Fives was teaching sabacc to Ryan. Grabbing a glass of water, he turned and made his way back to the bridge, where he found Rex patiently waiting.

"Pilot, how much do you trust me?"

"With my life, Sir," replied the clone.

"How about with the entire ship?" asked Anakin.

"Of course, sir," he said as he vacated the pilot's seat.

"Where are you going with this, General?" asked Rex.

"Trust me, Rex; if I knew I would have told you."

"That doesn't exactly inspire confidence, sir."

Anakin ignored him as he closed his eyes and focused on the brighter light that refused to leave the back of his eyelids. Using the Force to guide his hands, he typed in coordinates for the hyperdrive. Without even opening his eyes he flipped the lever that sent them hurtling through space.

* * *

Sydney awoke with a start. She'd just had the most peculiar dream about two metal beings many times the size of Changewing duking it out in an all out brawl. The problem with the dream was that something about those beings seemed familiar. Shaking her head with a sigh, she decided that she should take a walk to clear her head.

As she walked, she became more and more impressed with the sprawling size of Schnee Manor. There was the main mansion, as well as several outbuildings and even more hangars and garages; not to mention the amount of lawn space, a full size golf course, and a hedge maze. Deciding that a hedge maze was exactly what she needed to clear her head, she set off down the winding green paths.

As she wandered, her mind did as well, and she thought back over the past several days that had turned her life from dreary monotony to action filled adventure. She didn't know what possessed her to stow aboard that ship, but she was glad she did.

Turning a corner, she found herself in the center of the maze. There was a quaint fountain, surrounded by four benches, upon one of which sat an auburn headed girl in a grey dress with green accents.

"Oh, hello; I didn't expect anyone else to be awake at such an hour. Do you require assistance exiting the maze?" the girl asked.

"No, thank you; I don't think I'm ready to leave just yet."

"Then how about you have a seat? My name is Penny Polendina, what is yours?"

"My name is Sydney."

"Salutations, Sydney. It is very nice to meet you."

"Likewise, Penny," she replied.

"What are you doing out here so late, if I may ask?"

"Just wandering; you?" asked Sydney.

"I am in charge of security for the Manor. From here I can hear the entire property, yet I am not as easily detected by counter-intelligence measures."

"You're in charge of security? But you're such an adorable little girl."

"Do not worry, I am combat ready! Besides, you cannot tell, but I am as old as Madam Schnee. I am told I have maintained my youthful appearance quite well."

"I'll say, you look younger than me. How do you do it?"

"I am not sure why, I have always just considered it was because of my Father."

"Does he look young too?"

"Not anymore, but he did. I am sure my age will catch up with me eventually, but for now I protect Friend Ruby's home from invaders who would do them harm. I only wish I had been here a few days ago when Weiss needed me; if I had not been needed elsewhere she would not have gotten kidnapped."

"But then Weiss wouldn't have found out what Cinder's master plan was."

"True; thank you Sydney."

"No problem, friend."

"Friend? You consider me a friend?"

"Of course I do. I've never met a friendlier person besides Ruby and Nora, and even though you say you're as old as them I feel much more comfortable around you."

Penny sprung up and wrapped Sydney in a bone crushing hug, before releasing her quickly.

"My apologies, I hope I did not hurt you."

"It wasn't that tight, it's okay."

"Still, I have not made a new friend in a long time; thank you Sydney."

"You're welcome, Penny."

* * *

"This was a bad idea, Vector."

"Epistemus, ye of little faith, what could possibly make you say that?" asked the mentioned Prime.

"The fact that this was your idea," Epistemus replied in a tired tone of voice.

"Ouch, that might have actually hurt if I wasn't so absolutely certain that this would work. Prima believes in me, you should too."

"The day I believe a time travelling nut case is the mech with the plan is the day I am no longer known as the most intelligent Prime."

"Just because you have book smarts doesn't mean that you are the most intelligent."

"On that, we will have to agree to disagree."

"Agreed."

* * *

She hung limply from her chains, heaving, bloody, but alive. She had killed countless Grimm in her life, but never without her weapon or use of her hands. Somehow, though, she had survived, much to her captor's chagrin.

"You think you're all big and bad because you can kill Grimm with your feet? That doesn't matter, your daughter still thinks you're dead, and there is nothing you can do to help her when I send Goliaths after her. Maybe I'll send a few Drakes, or even a Daemon? What do you think, Sister? Think your precious Rose can handle a Daemon?"

"Go… to… hell…"

"After you, sweet heart; I have a Galaxy to take over."

* * *

 **A/N: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! To all RWBY fans out there, WHADDAYA THINK O' THAT? MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 ***breathes* *ahem* Anyway, a special Note to Kyoko: maybe that answers the question I've been refusing to answer. If you don't remember the question then go ahead and message me and I'll remind you.**

 **To everyone else: Triple Update (so far, I'm not done writing tonight/tomorrow morning)! Hooray! Another Short one, sure, but this one ended so perfectly I could not justify adding the next scene into this. Also, don't forget to leave a review guessing which three Primes were missing earlier: so far Prima, Alpha Trion, Vector Prime, and Epistemus Prime have been eliminated. Good Luck!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 15**

* * *

She was going to break out today. Some way, somehow, she was going to escape, or die trying.

Chained up and bruised, Summer Rose would hardly be recognizable to anyone but those closest to her. She'd been in captivity for well over ten years, and it showed. She'd never attempted to escape before, at first because she thought maybe she'd learn viable intelligence; but as those first months had dragged on and she learned just exactly _what_ guarded this place and where it was, she gave up hope on ever seeing her daughters again.

She could barely understand what gave her hope now. She had no way of breaking her bonds, no idea where her scythe was, and absolutely zero chance of getting past the Grimm and the ocean that stood between her and freedom. However, when she came to this morning after a particularly brutal beating, she felt inexplicably hopeful. Maybe she'd finally lost it, and she'd be returning to Dust soon. Or maybe something deep within her was reaching out to something she knew not of nor anything about.

* * *

Raven Branwen hadn't seen any of her family except for her daughter in more than ten years. She wasn't even sure if that brief chat with Yang counted, considering it was just to tell the younger girl that she'd end up like Summer if she continued her search.

That didn't mean she didn't love her family; she still loved Tai, Yang, and Ruby with all her heart; she just knew she wasn't fit to be a parent.

That wouldn't stop her from attempting to make it right, even if she was a decade too late. Maybe if she brought the best gift imaginable; one so good that they wouldn't even realize she was basically buying back their love.

That was why she was currently stalking the silver haired, metal legged thief stalking his way through the capitol of Atlas, looking for his next target. Raven figured what with all the trouble Cinder was putting Yang and Ruby through, bringing her in on a silver platter might do the trick. She would have to ask Glynda for help with a large enough platter, unfortunately.

Looking down on Mercury from the roof above, she stepped off the edge as he put his scroll up to his ear as if he was taking an audio call.

"No, I'm not doing anything. You're getting rid of her? Why? Okay. What could you possibly need me for? And you can't do it yourself? But I'm busy. Yes, I said I'm not doing anything, but I tell you that every time you call. Fine, I'll be there in a few hours. Goodbye," he said as he hung up the call.

"Who was that?" Raven asked innocently from behind him.

"Just Cinder, trying to get me to do her dirty work," he said, before turning around and crouching into a combat stance. "Wait, you're not Emerald."

"Of course not, darling; I'm your worst nightmare."

* * *

Raven chuckled as Mercury struggled to regain consciousness. He was tied down to a table, stripped of nearly all of his clothing, and probably in a lot of pain from the headache he undoubtedly had.

"Wake up, Mercury," she said in a soft, soothing voice.

"Emerald? Is that you?"

She slapped him. "Nope," she said, popping the p.

Mercury turned his head back around to face Raven. Groaning, he asked Raven what she wanted.

"Tell me where to find Cinder, or I will find this 'Emerald' person and end her life."

"No you won't."

"I found you, didn't I? Unfortunately for both of us, Cinder is a much harder woman to find than you are. All you need to tell me is what continent she's on, and what sector of that continent. Then I will slash your bonds and leave, freeing you to warn Cinder of my arrival."

"And tell her that I squealed? No thanks, I choose life."

"At the cost of your girlfriend's?" replied Raven evenly.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Do you want her to be your girlfriend? Maybe instead of kill her I could take her for myself…"

"No! I mean…"

Raven leaned incredibly close to Mercury's face. "You must learn something, Mercury; do you fear Cinder, or love Emerald more?"

"I'm not afraid."

"Then tell me where to find Cinder, don't tell her I'm coming, retrieve your clothing and be on your way. Is that in any way hard?"

"…No…"

"Good."

* * *

Raven walked slowly down the street in the abandoned neighborhood. This island, and the town upon it, had been abandoned years ago due to Grimm overpopulation. According to Mercury, however, it was also the location of Cinder's ultimate fallback position, and where she kept her prisoners. Raven was banking on Cinder's recent defeat by Ruby and the fact that Cinder needed Mercury to execute a prisoner to place Cinder here rather than elsewhere. The only thing Mercury swore he couldn't tell her was how to get into the base. Raven didn't mind; if she found it, she'd be able to enter it.

Up ahead, an Alpha Beowolf prowled. Raven had never seen an Alpha act alone, and she had never seen one wear a collar either.

"Take me to your leader," she mumbled as she snuck up on the beast. As silent as a mouse, she crept up to the Alpha, eyes focused on his collar. When she was close enough to see, she found that it did indeed have a tracking beacon.

 _Maybe it will tell whoever is in charge that you're dead, too,_ she thought as she slashed its head off with one of her swords.

Minutes later, several people wearing the old masks of the White Fang came and gestured to the oozing black, headless corpse.

 _Perfect,_ she thought as she snuck up behind them when they turned to return from wherever they came.

The five Faunus and one Human arrived at a forest about a minute later. From between two trees a hidden elevator raised itself up out of the ground then opened its doors. Before the Fangs had even set one foot inside it, however, Raven had cut them to ribbons and stepped inside herself.

"You'll have to wait for the next one," she said to the corpses.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, I'm bringing people who are supposed to be dead back to life. So what? Y'all'll like it anyway, trust me. Another short one, but the transition feels right so I'm calling it here.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 16**

 **A/N: I altered the familial relationships within the Rose-Branwen-Xiao Long family. Hope y'all don't mind too terribly much. If you do then I don't actually care because this is my head canon so get #rekt scrub.**

* * *

Raven's sword sang with glee as it chewed its way through Cinder's forces. A stab here, a slash there; the White Fang really had nothing on one of the best huntresses to ever graduate Beacon.

What she wasn't counting on, however, was absolutely _none_ of Cinder's main lackeys actually being here. It was Cinder's _main base;_ where the hell was everybody?

So she was taking out her frustrations on literally every living creature here, who cared? It's not like anyone she cared about would care. If she slowed Cinder down for her daughters, so be it. Maybe she'd even free a prisoner or two.

To that end, she slowly, methodically, killed her way down the levels on her way to the Detention Cells. When she arrived, though, to her surprise there was only one prisoner. She strode to the door, sliced through the obviously expensive and complex locking mechanism, and then nearly passed out in shock.

Summer Rose was in the cell.

 _Summer Rose was in the cell._

Forgetting all of her rage and frustration she rushed towards the far wall where her best friend hung shackled.

"Summer! Summer, wake up!"

Summer, for her part, did nothing, clearly far too out of it to even attempt consciousness.

"It's okay, Rose, I'll get you out of here."

Slicing the chains with one hand while simultaneously holding her up and trying to ignore her _generousness_ , Raven slung the unconscious woman over her shoulder and then sprinted back the way she came. As soon as she had exited the facility, she took out her long forgotten scroll and dialed the only number who had a chance of answering her right now.

"Hello?" slurred the baritone voice.

"Qrow, sober up; now!"

"Raven?" he yelled, causing an uproar on the other side of the line.

"Yes, dumbass, I need your help. I have something of great importance, but I cannot say what over scroll lines. Can you pick me up at the abandoned island to the south of Menagerie?"

"Why should I? The island you're talking about is easily swimmable, even for someone as lazy as you. You could make it to Menagerie faster than I could make it to you."

"Tell the Little Rose that I have her Gardener."

"Hey, Rubes; does the word Gardener mean anything to you? What? Then go! You can get there in minutes, and I'm sure you're less likely to get slapped than I am! But if you take me with you, you can't go top speed. She's on her way, should be there in about three minutes; can you wait that long?"

"I'm going to have to. Hopefully the Grimm don't realize I'm here."

Off in the distance, an Ursa roared.

"Negative on that, I need to hang up, Qrow. I guess I'll see you soon."

"Will you stay?"

"I don't know, maybe not." _It all depends on how many of you hate me,_ she added silently. She closed her scroll and placed it back into her pocket, before gingerly setting Summer down on a branch in a nearby tree. Then, she settled in for the longest, shortest fight of her life.

* * *

Ruby had never actually seen fit to take the Nebula as fast as it could go, but today was clearly an exception. After taking the craft all the way up to halo, she opened up all of the safety releases and jammed the throttle all the way forward. Looking out the viewport she could actually see the curvature of the planet, and how it was moving; or rather, she was moving, and incredibly fast too.

The continent of Menagerie arrived in her line of sight much faster than she expected it to, but she had never gone this fast so she had no reference.

When her GPS alerted her to the island's position below, she turned off the auto pilot and strapped herself back into the pilot's chair. Then she flipped the Nebula over and pulled back on the yoke, causing it to fall out of the sky at near top speed. In less than a second she pulled out of her dive and shut down the engines, allowing her to glide over the island. She extended her braking chutes and drag fins to slow her further, before kicking in the VTOL and the autopilot to maintain a steady altitude above Raven's position. By that point she had already grabbed Crescent Rose and was preparing to drop in on Raven and the Grimm.

She opened the rear door and stepped off the edge, landing on a Nevermore that was about to send feathers down into Raven. Ruby ripped Crescent Rose through the Nevermore's neck and rode the corpse down into a pack of Creeps, which she dispatched with cool efficiency before falling back to Raven.

"We don't need to kill them all, Little Rose, we just need to get your mother out of here."

"We need to get both of my mothers out of here. If you think you're not coming back, you've got another thing coming."

Raven paused before finally allowing a small smile to form on her face. "Okay, Ruby; besides, I'm getting tired of all this cloak and dagger, systematic extermination of an entire criminal organization. Maybe it's time I settled down and reconnected with everyone."

"I'm sure Dad would enjoy that. On your left!"

All talk ceased as the two women fell into a pattern of beautiful destruction against the newest wave of Grimm. At the first reprieve, Ruby grabbed her mother and jumped up the trees into the ship, followed closely by Raven.

"You go ahead and get us out of here, I'll take care of Summer," Raven said when the door closed.

"I don't have to worry about you disappearing, right?" Ruby asked.

"No; I've got Summer to take care of."

"Good. If I get my mom back then Yang should too."

"Summer was always better than me."

"That doesn't make you any less family," Ruby said before going into the cockpit.

Raven looked at the lounge that Ruby had set Summer on.

 _Wait. Whose ship is this?_

Ruby checked her scroll as she started getting the Nebula ready for the slower flight back. She had several missed calls from basically everyone and a massive text message from Weiss.

 _Ruby, Ahsoka's Master just arrived and is demanding Changewing to go back to Cybertron with him. He and the Reds and Blues are asking if we can go with them, but Anakin isn't willing to wait for you. Meet Winter at the SDC to get that upgrade we were talking about earlier installed._

 _Also, Yang and Qrow said you'll have big news when you get back, but now that we're leaving we won't be able to find out until you rejoin us. I'll try to stall for as long as I can. I love you_

 _-Weiss_

The time stamp was for ten seconds ago.

"Shit! Strap her and yourself in, we're gonna have to go fast."


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 17**

* * *

"Master Skywalker, you have to wait for them. Ruby is the best fighter here, if we want an actual shot, we need her," Weiss said. She was getting perilously close to begging, and she did not beg lightly.

"We need to be going now; there's no time to waste."

"Why?"

Everyone turned to look up at Changewing. He looked even worse than the last time Anakin had seen him. His wings were angled stiffly away from his body, his left knee was bent at an odd angle, his paint was scratched and chipped in places, and virtually nonexistent below his knees. None present could remember seeing him fully painted and repaired.

"Excuse me?" Anakin asked.

"I asked you why. What's the rush? I've been in regular contact with my intendeds on Cybertron, and they say we have plenty of time. A few minutes aren't going to change anything there. So, I'll ask again: why are you in such a hurry?"

"There is something on the surface of Cybertron that I wash to study. You're my best bet of getting down there."

"And me bringing as much backup as possible is _my_ best bet of getting down there. So, we wait."

Not for long, because with a loud boom that accompanies all supersonic flight, The Crimson Nebula appeared in the skies above.

"I don't even think we have enough room on the ship for everyone," said Anakin.

"Master, Lopez the Heavy of Red team is nearly done fixing the Twilight," Ahsoka supplied.

"And The Crimson Nebula is completely airtight. With a few modifications it could be space-worthy."

"Wait, really?" asked Ruby from the newly landed Nebula. "Since when is the SDC preparing to go to space? I thought you didn't believe in aliens."

"The original plan was to go to the moon to study what happened to it. Now that our horizons have been significantly broadened, it makes sense to branch out further."

"Weiss, how do you plan to get to space anyway? I thought Dust didn't work in a vacuum?" asked Pyrrha.

"I thought the same, but after some testing, Winter and I discovered that when combined properly with a mixture of air and wind Dust, all but fire dust can function in a vacuum. Winter and I were working on ways to use gravity and magnetic dust to grab onto distant gravitational fields and pull ourselves along that way. If we were to use null and time dust as a catalyst we could basically slow down time and 'fall' towards the target planet. Or at least, that's the theory anyway. Anyway, Ruby; why did you rush off all of a sudden?"

"I can answer that," said Raven as she walked down the ramp.

Tai-yang was speechless. Yang looked like she wanted to punch and hug her all at once. But pretty much everyone else either didn't know who she was or had already known she was coming.

Blake, ever the observant, realized exactly who that was faster than pretty much anyone else.

"Is that Yang's mom?" she and Weiss asked simultaneously.

Yang, for her part, answered by greeting her in the same manner she had her dad: a bone-crushing hug.

"Oof! Hey there, kiddo;" she separated from her daughter, "I can still call you kiddo, right?"

"Only if you stay this time; if you stay you can call me whatever you want," she replied as she pulled away.

Tai, however, was a little more reserved. "So you _are_ staying, then?" he asked, clearly skeptical.

"Well, there's someone else I brought back who needs someone to take care of her. Maybe you can help me with that? Ruby, bring her out."

Ruby zipped back into the ship, the eyes of nearly everyone present following her as she did so. When she returned, supporting a now barely conscious Summer, Yang and Tai immediately rushed over to help, while Weiss, seeing the state of the woman, dialed the manor's private infirmary and asked for someone to send a team to help a severely injured patient.

While this was going on, however, Rex had slowly moved nearer to Ahsoka.

"What's the craziest thing you've ever seen in a vision?" he had asked her.

"Nothing, that I think would warrant the amount of concern you have," she had replied after some thought. "Why?"

"Because Anakin has been acting strange since that vision of his, that's why. Actually, it probably started when he saw Cybertron. There's this massive blue light in the middle of one of the many craters down there, and I think that's what affected him like this. I can't be sure though, so I thought it best to get another Jedi's opinion before making assumptions."

"I wouldn't know either, Rex. I'm not exactly the best at meditating. Maybe you should ask Changewing what the blue light is; that might shed some light on the subject."

* * *

Changewing and Anakin had remained outside to continue arguing; meanwhile, everyone else had either gone to check on the status of their ship, gone with Summer to the infirmary, or gone to meet Winter at the Experimental Research and Development Department at SDC HQ, as was the case of Weiss, Penny and, oddly enough, Sydney.

When Weiss arrived, she and Winter put on their safety gear and walked toward the only project currently under development: the Gravity Drive. After Penny and Sydney had moved into an observation area, Weiss and Winter got started.

"We need this to start working, and fast," Weiss said. "What were we working on last time?"

"Well, we got it to where it could single out separate gravitational fields and move towards them. The problem was slowing down time. The Time Dust and Null Dust work as a proper catalyst, but they deplete too rapidly to be efficient. We either need to modify the mixture or add something that will slow down the consumption without affecting the reaction."

"What about White?"

"Weiss, White dust doesn't exist. It's a theoretical Dust that Grandfather spent his entire life trying to find."

"Winter, what was the last thing Grandfather did before he died?"

"He signed over the company to Father and gave you Myrtnaster. Why?"

"Myrtnaster can _make_ White dust. Haven't you ever wondered why I never upgraded to a slimmer dust revolver? Ruby could easily build me one in her sleep. The inside of the revolver can mix the contents of the chambers into White Dust."

"And you've withheld this for years because?"

"Because of the target that would be painted on my back if anyone learned of it."

"Okay, fine, I understand. What's the formula?"

"That's the problem. I don't know it, and neither Ruby nor I were willing to risk the integrity of the current revolver to find out how it mixes it."

"So we're back to square one."

"Maybe not; I know for a fact that it requires every type of dust besides Null, Time, and Weather. The quantities, however, are lost on me."

"Well, it would need to be a perfect balance of the standard eight elements, and a perfect balance of the higher four. Did you try that?"

"I did, but it fairly often would literally explode in my face from the volatility of certain mixtures."

"Did you try mixing in stages?"

"Yes, I did."

"Well, what if it does need Null?"

"Wouldn't my rapier have eventually stopped working, then?"

"Maybe not; Dust infused metals are known to maintain the properties of the dust for quite a while, nearly forever. It would work for the small quantities of Myrtnaster, but on this scale it would be pointless. Instead, we need to work with the actual material itself."

"This engine is turning out to be pretty expensive."

"But if we go all out it will last forever. Do you think it's possible to make a Mega-crystal of White?"

"It's worth a shot, but it will take several tons of each other kind of dust. Let's start small scale, first."

* * *

They were covered in soot, and had worked well into the night, penny and Sydney had somehow stayed up the entire time; but the fruit of their labor stood before them: a small crystal of White dust, sitting on a comprehensive formula.

"Good, job Sister," said Winter.

"You too, Sister," replied Weiss. "Ready to go full scale?"

"Of course."

* * *

 **A/N: Finally getting to the meat of the story: The War for Cybertron is coming soon. Who's ready to read poorly thought out battle scenes? I know I'm ready to write them.**

 **Edit: I'd put a date but I just edited several chapters over the course of weeks. In that time I got Transformers, War For Cybertron. I might end up using some of it and Fall of Cybertron's battle sequences and plot elements to help me with the coming chapters.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 18**

 **So sorry about the wait. Again. But hey, writing is hard. Especially when you have new videogames to play, or you rediscover old ones. Oh well, you know what they say about excuses.**

" **Never discourage progress, no matter how slow."**

* * *

"How long until The _Crimson Nebula_ 's new engines are completed, Mrs. Schnee-Rose?" asked Ahsoka.

"Ahsoka, please, I asked you to call me Ruby. You make me feel old, I'm not that much older than you. The _Nebula_ 's engines are almost complete. Weiss, Winter, and Penny have been doing pretty much all of the work alone because the White Dust formula is so dangerous and important. They're fast, but not that fast. They'll be ready in about a week."

"Okay, thanks, M-, I mean, Ruby."

"No problem. Say, where did your purple haired friend go?"

"Who, Sydney? She's been hanging out with either Changewing or Penny incessantly. Changewing told me that she sleeps less than a Cybertronian. Which reminds me; I think I may have a Cybertronian doctor look her over when we get there."

"Why would you do that?"

"The way she acts sometimes… not sleeping or eating for extended periods of time; one time I woke up in the middle of the night and her eyes were glowing."

"Glowing? How?" asked Ruby.

"They were glowing bright purple, and where irises normally were it was bright white. It was kind of creepy at first, but the more I think about it, Changewing's optics look exactly like that, except his are blue."

"So you think she might be a little Cybertronian? Like a baby?"

"Or something close to it. She doesn't change shape, or have hidden weapons, or access to their genetic pocket dimension they call Subspace. Still though, maybe that stuff comes with growth."

"Have you asked Changewing?" Ruby asked.

"No, but between you and me, I don't think that Changewing is… intelligent enough, to make a proper… diagnosis? I don't know. I'm just not sure if he is an expert in his species' medicine."

"Oh well. I guess we wait, then."

* * *

"Alright fine; if you won't allow me to hurry everyone along to save _your_ planet, will you at least tell me what I saw?" Anakin asked.

"Describe it again," replied Changewing.

"It was a massive blue light in the middle of a depressed circle on the planet."

"The middle? It might be the Well of the Allspark."

"What's the Well of the Allspark?"

"It's where the Allspark resides."

"Okay… what's the Allspark?"

"It's one of the first things ever created in this universe, and is where our sparks go when we die, unless the spark is completely obliterated, or if there is too much Dark Energon for the spark to actually extinguish."

"So it's your afterlife?"

"Not necessarily; we're not sure if our consciousnesses go there or even remain conscious, but it has been proven that remaining spark energy makes its way to the Well, no matter the distance."

"It sounds a lot like what happens to us when we die. When we die, we become one with the Force. The only difference is we don't have a physical manifestation of our souls."

"Curious, that two incredibly different cultures would have nearly identical afterlives."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that our cultures may not have always been separate. Alpha Trion, he's a scholar in Iacon, once told me that the history of the universe goes much further back to the Golden Age of Cybertron. I always thought he was talking about the legend of Unicron, but maybe there's more to it. I'd take you to meet him, but he's dead. I guess I'll have to look into it myself."

"How did this scholar die?"

"Assassinated, I was told. And when I find out who ordered the hit and who carried it out, both of them will be on my personal chopping block."

* * *

"Commander Starscream, Soundwave, we have a situation."

Starscream and Soundwave looked over from the console that monitored the subspace frequency that Megatron would comm in on when he returned from… whatever it was that he was doing. Only Soundwave really knew exactly what he had left to do, and Primus knew that no one was going to found out if they _asked_.

"Speak you're piece, Spyblade," said Starscream.

"Commander Shockwave's corpse is missing."

Soundwave turned and commanded the main monitor to pull up security feeds near where Shockwave's body was going to be buried. The logs showed the drones who accompanied him were slaughtered by an unknown assailant who fired bolts of green Energon and had grey armor. He then grabbed Shockwave's corpse and dragged it away.

"Soundwave, order some drones to investigate. In the meantime, Spyblade and I will oversee repairs to the old Lab." Under his breath, Starscream added, "And have a small chat about our fallen comrade."

* * *

His single optic powered on, and his audio receptors slowly onlined.

"Arise, Shockwave. You are still needed among the land of the living."

"Forgive me, but I do not recognize your voice."

"My name is Darth Plagueis, but the name of this voice is Octane. I have been planning to overthrow the republic and eventually rule the entire universe, but my fool of an apprentice may ruin everything; I need a backup plan. That, my friend, is where you come in."

"Your assumption that I would join you rather than fight beside Lord Megatron is illogical."

"Is it logical to side against the being that brought you back to life? Besides, all I require is your scientific prowess. You have been attempting to create the perfect soldier by combining the inherent strength of Cybertronians with the superior body structure of organics. I have with me a being that is equal parts one of Primus, one of Unicron, and one of The One. He will be the baseline to your super soldier."

"Where would I create this soldier?"

"Your lab is over here. This way."

* * *

"So…"

The syllable was spoken by Yang, who was one of the people standing in Summer Rose's hospital room. Ruby, Tai, Raven, and Qrow were with her, the former sitting on the bed holding Summer's hand, as if to assure herself that she was actually real.

"So I'm alive," said Summer.

"And we're all glad for that," began Tai, who was sitting next to the bed. "What I want to know is what happened. You went to that mission and then the next thing we knew the moon exploded and you were gone. What happened?"

"I guess I should tell what happened. It's kind of a long story…"

"We've got time. _None_ of us are going anywhere until the girls have to leave to save some other world," Raven said, mostly looking at Yang when she did.

"Okay," replied Summer. "Where to begin…"

* * *

 **Edit:1-20-17 (or however the rest of the world orders January 20th 2017): Heavy rewrite of Chapters 1 and 2 into chapter 1, chapters 3- 19 have been turned into 2-18. I can finally say that all chapters are up to snuff. Also, I'll be putting up a poll to ask who will get the main POV when all of the "heroes" are banded together against evil, because this jumping crap is wearing me down. Remember, _I_ am the author so my say is the final say, but hey, suggestions are cool too.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 19**

 **A/N: This thing starts with the story of Summer vs. her sister. You get to find out who her sister is in this chapter. Maybe. Not really. RWBY fans might know it.**

* * *

"Okay," said Summer. "Where to begin? It's been so long, I barely remember anything between Ruby's eighth birthday and captivity. I'll try my best, but I don't think I'll remember it all.

"When I got the call about a serious disturbance where my sister disappeared, I was understandably… distraught. I hadn't seen my sister since she was a first year in Beacon and I was still studying in Signal. Her team got sent out on a mission and she… was taken, or something. Her partner was the one who remembered the most about that particular attack, and he could never tell me exactly what happened. All he remembered was something really big hitting the ground, then the screams of his teammates, and finally a wall of gray as everything went black.

"Anyway, Ironwood took me out to the area, reluctantly I might add, and I jumped off the ship before he could land it. Something told me I needed to be fast, and whatever it was, it was right. This giant, gray, _thing_ just dropped from the sky and smashed right through Ironwood's ship; punching through it like paper. When all the dust cleared, instead of this formless gray thing, there was a giant black and gray robot. He said something in a foreign language, then opened up his chest and pulled something out. That something was my sister."

There were loud exclamations from her entire family, but Summer also heard someone outside begin cursing in disbelief. She didn't have time to dwell on that, because her family had quieted themselves and were patiently waiting for her to continue.

"It was my sister, except it wasn't. It looked like her, moved like her, _fought like her_ , but it wasn't her. Her skin was beyond pale, her eyes like that of a Grimm. My eyes said sister, but my aura said Grimm. When I reached out with my Aura, I felt a soul, but it was distorted, somehow, and it wasn't the color of my sister's. So I attacked her.

"She and I fought for what felt like several hours. Eventually though, I defeated her. The Gray Giant apparently had enough when that happened, and so he said 'Fine, if that little experiment won't take you down, then I will.' And so his hand changed into a large… gun, for lack of a better term-ˮ Those assembled who knew of Changewing's ability to do just that grew worried looks. "- and shot at me. I dodged, of course, and decided to attack it as well.

"That fight lasted longer. So long, that James was able to crawl from his wrecked ship, minus one arm and one leg, and use his cross continental scroll to call for backup. But by that time it was too late, I had already won. Because I was too small and fast for him to hit, he began to get frustrated and start shooting everything everywhere indiscriminately. Using one of the powers of Silver Eyes, that I'm not allowed to disclose to anyone but Ruby, I was able to draw upon that destruction and swing my scythe hard enough to launch him into orbit, shattering the moon in the process. Wait… what's with all of the scared looks?"

Ruby was the first to speak. "Mom? That gray thing? Do you think you would be able to describe it in detail to… a mutual friend?"

"I think, why? Who is this friend?"

"She means me," said Changewing from the window. "That gray being was one of my species, and sounds like someone I used to know."

"Who are you? Who was he? _What_ are you?"

"Mom, calm down, he's a friend," said Ruby.

"My name is Changewing, and I am a robotic life-form from the planet Cybertron. As for who he is, he sounds like someone I knew when I was younger."

"He was mostly gray, with green eyes and black markings, especially on his arms and legs. Something weird I noticed was that his breastplate was hexagonal, and was made of some clear material in a dome over a metal base. I figured that out when I smashed it during the fight."

Changewing looked crestfallen. "No, it can't be… he was a pacifist, a scientist before the War…" Changewing stood back up to his full height, ignoring the troubled looks on the humans in the room below him. "Octane, what happened to you?"

* * *

Octane, or rather, Darth Plagueis, stood at a large computer terminal, large even by Cybertronian standards. Several monitors displayed images from the Galactic Senate, various Clone battlefields, the Siege of Iacon, and of Beacon on Remnant, or rather the green mech standing outside of it, looking to the stars as if they held all the answers he searched for.

A small twinge of emotion from his, _host_ , caused the Dark Lord of the Sith to pause, and focus on that screen in particular.

' _You won't find your answers up there, old friend, but rather in here'_ Octane thought as for a moment, he could control his own hand and rest it over his spark chamber. When Plagueis realized that Octane was getting the better of him, he slammed against what little remained of Octane until he was thoroughly quashed into a dark recess in his very spark. Deciding that he should remove temptation from his most unruly obstacle, he turned off the feed from Beacon and replaced it with a feed of his apprentice's apprentices' _new_ headquarters on Remnant.

After watching for several moments and deciding that their activity level was satisfactory, he slowly toggled through every feed of his various pawns' spheres of influence. He saw Malcolm Hargrove winning the trust of Senator Amidala as they went back to Earth, he saw Starscream and another seeker having a chat over a cube of Energon, and he saw Palpatine preparing for another Senate meeting.

' _Everything is going to both that bumbling fool's plan as well as mine. Now to make sure the backup plan is well on its way'_

The feed changed to that of Shockwave, who was currently conducting experiments on his newest and most precious test subject. He was currently trying to rid it of its more… spider-like, attributes, in favor of a much more volatile and effective method of destruction. His vast intellect and unfathomable processing speed, as well as the far superior technology provided by Octane's knowledge of the Golden Age of Cybertron, was allowing him to quickly create a super-soldier unlike any before it.

Satisfied, Darth Plagueis turned off his data screens and turned towards the cube of Energon he'd set aside earlier. Though Synthetic Energon was incredibly difficult to make, it was the only kind he, Shockwave, and his prisoner had access to at their current location. Not that the Dark Lord complained, for as long as he'd been possessing this body he had been unable to use any other kind for the simple reason of there were no deposits of any kind anywhere near here.

After downing his dose, he left a note for Shockwave, should the mech ever get thirsty and come this way for his own cube, which said he would be meditating for a while. Even if he was a Sith, meditation was an excellent way to channel his emotions into a driving force for his plans.

* * *

 **A/N: Ending's kind of meh, but it's all I could do with it. Also don't forget to vote in the poll, though I think I might already know who I wanna make the "main". Considering I have a _slight_ outline for like 13... or so... stories in this universe; a lot of people will get to be mains.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 20**

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to come? I'm sure one of Jaune's sisters can take care of the baby," Ruby said to Pyrrha as she, Jaune, Nora, and Ren remained on the tarmac behind the _Crimson Nebula_ , whose new engines were thrumming with untold amounts of power as Weiss finished prepping the first Remnant origin space craft for take-off. The _Twilight_ had already left with Changewing and the Reds and Blues, and Anakin was waiting for them all in orbit.

"We'll be fine without a little adventure, Ruby," Pyrrha replied.

"Yeah," said Jaune. "Besides, someone has to watch the school and make sure Cinder doesn't take over while we're gone."

"Good point, Jaune. Be careful, and watch out for my moms, okay? I don't know what I'd do if I lost either of them again."

"We'll watch them, Ruby," Ren said in a moment of speech. Nora, meanwhile, was uncharacteristically silent. When Ruby gave her a questioning look, Nora simply smiled with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Okay then, guys. Take care of the planet for us."

"Will do, Fearless Leader," said Jaune, as they turned to vacate the runway that would soon be the site of the _Nebula's_ first launch with super-luminal (technically) flight.

Once the Reaper had reached the cockpit, Weiss handed her a headset so they could talk without having to shout, as the cockpit was not as sound-proof as the cabin.

"Alright, Weissy, what's left to do?"

"Just a manual control test, I already took care of the Autopilot and the test firing of the Dust."

"Alright; ailerons, check; rudders, check; elevators, check; control jets, check; manual override, check. This is a pretty damn good ship, Weiss. Let's get going."

Ruby put her hand on the throttle and started easing forward, allowing the turbo-ramjets' turbines to begin cycling up. Once they reached what her indicators told her was "safe operating speed", she released the parking brake and took full control of the ship. As the craft started moving forward, she slowly pushed the throttles even further forward, allowing the ship to start moving down the runway incredibly fast, before the Reaper pulled back on the yoke and lifted the ship into the air.

As she climbed through Remnant's atmosphere and breached her ship's old maximum altitude, the engines began to cough as they were expected to. To combat this, Weiss reached over and pulled a lever which completely closed the forward intakes and opened up the pump to the mega crystal of Air Dust. Once the engines had completed their transition, Ruby fired the after-burners to catch up with the _Twilight_.

"Attention, Commander Tano and General Skywalker, this is the _Crimson Reaper._ We'll see you at Cybertron," said Weiss as she used the ship's computer to single out Cybertron's gravitational field. Once she finished that, she activated the White crystal and the Gravity drive, which caused time to drastically slow down for those aboard.

"Alright, Ruby; time to break physics, again. Point her at the 'ground' and open her up!"

Ruby smirked her little half smirk as she did just that.

* * *

 **A/N:** _"sampletext"_ **is someone else speaking through a Spark-Bond.** _ **"sampletext"**_ **is the main focus speaking through a spark bond. Even though Changewing is talking to two people, it seems like he's talking to one because they actually basically are the same person with minor memory differences and personality quirks.**

* * *

"Attention, _Twilight_ crew, prepare for lightspeed. Repeat, prepare for lightspeed," said Epsilon over the intercom.

Changewing sighed. He was finally going back to his home-world. He hadn't seen another Cybertronian for too long. From what he'd heard, though, things weren't going well for the Autobots. All of their holdings, from Altihex to Tyger Pax, had been lost. Even the main fort outside of Iacon had been sacked. All they had left was the one spaceport and its defenses, which were meager at best as far as the green triple-changer could remember.

" _Don't worry, Wings. We're doing fine, for now. Optimus wants you and any forces you've brought to run the blockade and begin defending Iacon. If we don't even have to launch the Ark it will be a victory. Once we've stabilized Iacon, we can start taking other things back."_

" _ **That's good to hear, Silver. Where's Mercury?"**_

" _I'm here, too. Ratchet just told me to tell you that there is a wrench with your name on it when you get back for the amount of injuries you've accrued."_

" _ **And how does he know of my injuries?"**_

"… _No reason."_

" _ **Sadist."**_

" _Masochist."_

" _Guys. Regardless of Wings's fate upon his arrival, we have to discuss landing strategies."_

" _ **I know that at least I and one other ship are fast enough to punch through the blockade, but we have two destroyers waiting to rendezvous with us outside of Cybertron's sphere of influence. I don't think they have enough firepower or enough speed to make it through intact enough to be of use."**_

" _Let me ask Optimus about that."_

Changewing stuttered his vents in frustration. He'd actually been struggling with that predicament for a while now. The only thing that he could think of is either somehow disabling Soundwave and sneaking in, or having someone on the surface that was much more important than Autobot reinforcements attempt to leave at the same time, forcing the blockade to focus on two targets rather than one, and thus being able to deal with.

" _Optimus says that he thinks something Jazz did a few days ago might help."_

" _ **What's he got?"**_

" _He says that he has had Slicer infiltrate the Decepticon ranks. He's currently able to cause a distraction in Kaon, which should force the Decepticon Armada and their Armies to withdraw."_

" _ **What distraction could Slicer do?"**_

" _He's going to lead the Wreckers, some of our team, and the Dinobots to kidnap Soundwave and hold their spacebridge and Sounders hostage. With Megatron currently AWOL, Starscream will have no choice but to pursue them."_

" _ **That's a bold plan, even for Slicer. Who actually came up with it and who sanctioned it?"**_

" _Charger did, and Dreadwing sanctioned it."_

" _ **Of course, with prodding from Charger, Spectre, and Skyquake I'm sure."**_

" _Oh, absolutely,"_ replied Quicksilver and Mercury at the same time.

" _ **How is Angel doing?"**_

" _She still misses you. Why you insisted on leaving your deployer behind I will never understand."_

" _ **You know, I almost offlined from Energon deprivation, right?"**_

" _WHAT?! AND WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL US THAT?"_

Changewing flinched; and even though he couldn't hear them, his audio receptors began ringing from the force of the Twins' mental shout.

" _ **I was going to tell you face to face so you could have just hit me rather than scream so loud it actually affected me at this distance."**_

" _I cannot believe you. Well, no, actually I can. Which makes you that much more infuriating."_

" _ **Must suck, being in love with a mech you get mad at so easily."**_

" _Well, we're not mad. We can never stay mad at you; we're just scared for you. Are you sure you want to continue to wait until the War is over to become Sparkmates?"_

" _ **I wish it didn't have to be this way, but if we become Sparkmates and any one of us dies, all three of us die; and since Flashback's abilities are being blocked I don't want to take any chances. Besides, fifty percent of Sparkmating Ceremonies cause sparklings, and an even higher percentage for 'matings between Split-Sparks and their One. We can't handle a child in the middle of a war; look at how we've grown up and we were Sparked before the War."**_

" _Okay, Wings. We understand. We just want this stupid war to be over soon."_

" _ **You and me, three."**_

* * *

 **A/N: yay double update. I'm getting back into my stride; let's see how long this lasts. Also, The _Crimson Nebula,_ while it is a VTOL, it is much safer for it to use wheels like modern day aircraft because Turbo-ramjets don't exactly have reverse thrust, so without the braking power of chutes, wheels, and dragfins, it would be nearly impossible to stop it from hyper-sonic flight while still in the air. Also it saves energy.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 21**

* * *

"You summoned me, Optimus Prime?"

"Yes. Master Yoketron's apprentice, Drift came to see me today. He brought a parcel that was addressed to you and requested I give it to you personally."

"Thank you, Optimus Prime. Do you know what it is?"

"Drift did not know; he received it in its current condition from Master Yoketron himself. However, I believe it would be prudent to open it within the privacy of your personal living quarters."

"Yes, sir," replied Flashback. Turning on his heel, he walked back towards the barracks that the remaining Seekers on base next to the Ark used for recharge in-between Decepticon assaults on Iacon. When he arrived at his room, he closed and locked the door and scanned for microphones, cameras, or any other kinds of bugs in both his room and in the box. While he held no illusions that anything audible _would_ be heard by the acting leader of Team Apocalypse, Wind Ryder, he still preferred not to be heard by anyone else.

Slowly and carefully opening the box, he found that a large portion of the box was a strange looking Energon Cube. He looked through the slits in the side to see that the color was nearly white.

"If this is just High-Grade I'm giving it to you, Ryder," mumbled the blue and silver seeker.

Setting the strange cube aside, for now, he turned back to the box and fished out the only remaining contents: a hand-written note in flawless calligraphic Cyber-Standard.

 _Dear Flashback,  
It has come to my attention that your innate abilities to alter the very fabric of Time have become disrupted. The late Alpha Trion informed me that he knew the reason why, but could not tell me what it was. What he did do, however, is send me a gift saying to give it to you when he passed. He said to drink it when "all who need to be here are here", but I do not know what he meant by that. He said that it would give you an "anchor" in Time, so that instead of the usual three day window of opportunity for you to rewind Time, you would instead rewind all the way back to when you had drank the last drop. I do not know when you should drink it, or even if you should, but before he died Alpha Trion told me that it would only work once; after that, its ability would be gone. Use it wisely._

" _Who is 'everyone'?"_ thought Flashback. _"Obviously Wings, the rest of the team, the Twins, but most of them are already on-world. Maybe I need to drink it when they're all on Base? That makes… some sense."_ Deciding not to stew on it any further, Flashback set the Cube above his berth on one of the storage racks he had hung up there.

"Attention all Autobots, the Decepticons are retreating. Repeat: the Decepticons are retreating." As a resounding cheer went up around the rest of the base, Flashback quickly commed Wind Ryder, saying that he should probably alert Charger and the rest of the team to leave Kaon as soon as possible.

* * *

Meanwhile, above Iacon, the two Star Destroyers that weren't even supposed to be there had just arrived, along with Anakin's ship and the _Twilight._

"And what, exactly, did you want to show me that was so important that you had to drag not only myself, but both destroyers to a planet that is clearly a hostile territory?"

"Changewing told me what's really going on. The Autobots are one loss away from losing, and if they lose then the Decepticons are coming after the rest of the Galaxy next. First the Covenant, then the United Earth Alliance, then the Hutts, The Mandalorians, and finally the Republic and Separatists; all of them are on his hit list."

"And how does he know that?"

"One of the Autobot spies found it out. He's been getting regular updates from the Twins, as he calls them, ever since we left Remnant. Ahsoka has been telling me, and Agent Carolina has begun informing Admiral Hood."

"So what do we do? The Senate would never be so proactive as to allow us to attack the Decepticons."

"What we do is simple, Master; we follow your old Master's teachings."

"Qui-Gon's Defiance? Anakin, the only reason that ever worked for him is because he very well might have been a part of the fabled Gray Order. Unless you have Dark Side techniques hiding in that brain of yours, we don't qualify for Qui-Gon's Defiance," said Obi-Wan jokingly. "No, I know what you mean. What did Senator Amidala say to this?"

"She took some… convincing, but she's on board."

"Good. In that case, we must get started."

"General Kenobi, we have an unknown craft on our scopes."

"Point of origin?"

"Deep space, sir."

"It's probably the _Crimson Nebula_ ," said Anakin. "That's the ship that the people from Remnant built to follow us. We should hail them." After a few moments, a four way communications call was being held between Ruby, Weiss, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Changewing, and Ahsoka.

"Greetings, everyone; to those who haven't yet met me, my name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Changewing, how are we getting down to the surface?"

"The Autobots have launched a daring attack against the Decepticon capitol in Kaon. Because of this, the blockade surrounding the planet has been temporarily lifted. Now is the only chance we have to land."

"Where can we land? These Destroyers aren't exactly small, even by you species' standards," said Anakin.

"There is an old landing platform just to the south of the city. It's the largest flat area that is close enough to defend. What troops we have that aren't currently engaged are already working on moving there, now."

"What can we do?" asked Ruby.

"Since your craft prefers linear landing rather than VTOL, as of now, I am having one of our seekers take you to a long stretch of freeway nearby the landing area for the Destroyers."

"How long is this freeway?" asked Weiss.

"If memory serves, it is about four of your kilometers," replied Changewing.

"That should be sufficient for braking. Where will we go afterward?"

"I'll have someone take you to the base. Most of the roadways should be wide enough for you to taxi the entire way there."

"Sounds like a plan," said Obi-Wan. "Ahsoka, I want you to take the _Twilight_ directly to the Autobot HQ; drop Changewing off with their medic and speak with the man in charge. Anakin, go with her."

"Yes, Master," they replied in tandem.

* * *

 **A/N: It's short, but next chapter will probably be in a locked POV. Still haven't decided on that.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 22**

 **A/N: yeah still jumping. I've just gotten so used to it that even though it's heavily taxing it would be even more difficult to switch back at this point. Oh well.**

* * *

The _Twilight_ settled itself down on a hastily prepared landing platform directly next to where Optimus Prime was coordinating the base move. The new location was set securely between the Star Destroyers and _The Ark_.

Changewing groaned as he painfully transformed back into his primary mode. After being shot into stasis, crash landing into a desert, freezing in an arctic mountain range, and nearly starving to death; he honestly didn't care how bad the Hatchet was going to scold and beat him for the scrap he got himself into this time.

Naturally, he was unsurprised when the first beings to greet him were his Intendeds: Mercury and Quicksilver. Each of them was a two wheeler, and each of them had purple in their color scheme. In fact, it was incredibly difficult to tell them apart for anyone but Changewing and Optimus Prime; most others had given up and simply referred to them as the Wings Twins. He _was_ surprised, however, when each of them slapped him, _hard._

"Ow, what the frag was that for?"

"The first one was for nearly offlining out there, and the second one was for not taking as much care of yourself as you could have," they replied at the same time. Then they each kissed him on the each cheek. "That was for coming back in mostly one piece."

Changewing rolled his optics at his Intendeds' confusing antics, before nearly keeling over when something incredibly weighty hit the back of his helm.

"Now, I knew when you left that this would be a dangerous mission, but By the Allspark, Changewing! There isn't a micrometer on you that isn't damaged!"

"I was actually saving the back of my helm for a special injury, Ratchet, but I guess you took that away from me," Changewing said to the red and white surgeon.

"Oh puh-lease, you are not fooling me, I saw the dent that was there before I added to it."

"What d-ˮ

"Yep-ip-ip! I don't want to hear excuses. Now, are you capable of walking to the infirmary or do I need to get someone to carry you?"

"I can walk fine," Changewing replied through clenched denta.

"Good. March."

Ahsoka laughed quietly as Ratchet practically dragged the proud triple-changer away for repairs. Turning towards Anakin, who had just joined her, she asked him what they should do next.

"We should find whoever's in charge and talk to him about combat strategies. We have no idea how they fight, so as soon as we have some idea on that, we can integrate the Clones into attack strategies."

"What about Changewing's plan about using the Reds and Blues to distract Megatron long enough to capture him?"

"I was under the impression that that was still a viable plan. That still leaves finding their leader, and we have no idea if they all speak our language as well as Changewing does."

"I believe I can answer both of those questions," said a deep voice from above and behind them. Ahsoka and Anakin turned to see a towering red and blue mech leaning down towards them. "My name is Optimus Prime. I am the leader of the Autobots, and you are?"

"My name is General Anakin Skywalker, one of the people in charge of this expedition. This is my apprentice, Ahsoka Tano. I was wondering if we would be able to discuss strategy."

"Would it not be prudent to wait until all of your leaders are able to be present? Forgive me, but Autobot strategy meetings normally include all capable leaders."

"We can wait for Obi-Wan and anyone you're waiting on."

"Currently Changewing is in the infirmary and Ultra Magnus is leading an assault against Kaon, as I'm sure your aware." Optimus prime transformed into his alt-mode then opened both of his doors. "If you would like a lift to the Decagon, I will take you there."

When they were each settled into his cab, Ahsoka asked a question that had been nagging her ever since she met Changewing. "Optimus Prime, sir; why do you have cockpits if there are no organics on-world to, well, pilot you?"

"In the ancient texts, it is said that we were designed this way for exactly this occasion; an occasion in which we found ourselves allied with Organics who from time to time required transportation."

"Who designed you?"

"On that, the texts disagree. Some believe that we were designed by the Thirteen Original Primes; others believe that we were designed by Primus himself. All agree that our bodies were no accident, however."

"Does that mean that the controls within your cockpits are fully functional?"

"Correct; if I were to be knocked into stasis somehow one or the other of you would be able to safely remove us from the highway."

* * *

"Severe Energon deprivation; your T-cog is nearly locked; two cracked knee joints, one of which is so damaged I will have to remove it just to even attempt repair; cuts, scrapes, and dents on 98% of your surface area; loss of paint on more than 50% of your surface area; sand damage to your lower extremities; blaster damage from when Starscream nearly shot you down; and frost damage to four of your tires and your lower extremities, _again_. What is it about your legs that make you want to damage them?" Ratchet ranted at Changewing. "On second thought, don't answer that, you'll probably try to be cute."

"Cute? Me? Never," said Changewing, as facetiously as he could.

Ratchet simply huffed.

Changewing sobered. "You can fix it, right, Doc? My legs are pretty important to me, and a lot of the damage _was_ unavoidable."

"I'll see what I can do, but I know I won't be able to do a lot of this on my own. When Spectre gets back he's going to airlift you to Hightop's private medical facility on the outskirts of the Sea of Rust. I will meet you there, then, and Hightop and I will begin the surgery then. For now, you are going to rest, and if I find out that those Twins of yours even remotely keep you from recharge so help me I will put you in solitary confinement. Oh, and that cube of Red Energon you wanted is ready, but because of my aforementioned _order_ for you to rest you will not be getting it until after Hightop and I are finished repairing you."

"No, _please_ don't take me to him. _Solarwing_ is there, she'll kill me when she finds out how bad I'm injured."

"You should have thought of that before you volunteered on the mission and then got injured nearly to the point of death. Your sister will not kill you, I'll make sure of that, but if she chooses to berate you in the same way I have I will not stop her."

"You know, for a medic, you have a really big mean streak."

"Really? Would you believe that you aren't the first to tell me that?"

"Yes."

* * *

 **A/N: Double update again! I'd start making these longer if I wasn't worried about how much longer they would take on my slow… months.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 23**

* * *

"Attention Autobot Base: would all organics currently on station please report to the Decagon. Repeat: would all organics please report to the Decagon; any Autobot who would wish to assist them in transportation would be greatly appreciated. That is all."

Ruby pulled her head out of the access bay on top of the _Nebula_. "What did the loud voice just say?"

"It said to get down from there and come with me," Weiss replied from her position at the base of the ramp with Blake, Yang, Penny, and Sydney. "You can get acquainted with the new design specs later; right now we're needed at some place called the Decagon."

"But Wei-ˮ

"Ruby Schnee-Rose so help me I will send you to the couch for an entire month if you even _think_ of using those dust damned puppy dog eyes on me right now."

Thoroughly cowed, Ruby jumped down amongst the snickers of her sister.

"Yang, don't think I won't find somewhere convenient to freeze you to a wall," continued the CEO after linking arms with her wife. "Now; do any of you know where to find this so called Decagon?"

"We can take you."

The six of them looked up to see three Cybertronians they'd never met before. One was taller than the others, colored blue and silver, and appeared to have wings made of doors; while the other two were practically identical to each other and were purple in coloration.

"Thank you; what are your names?" Ruby asked as they transformed into two bikes and a sports car.

"My name's Silversun, those two are Mercury and Quicksilver, Changewing's Intendeds."

Ruby and Weiss got on Quicksilver, the latter wrapping her arms tightly around the crimsonette; while Yang and Blake got on Mercury in a similar position. Penny and Sydney got into Silversun's cabin and they all rolled out to the Decagon.

About halfway into the drive, Blake noticed a strange noise coming from one of the overpasses that was merging with the highway they were currently on. As the barrier between the two roadways fell away an open-topped, four wheeled monstrosity appeared, from whence the "music" originated. Behind them were two more of the same vehicles, but each had a different turret on the back. Riding alongside one of the ATVs was a smaller ATV. All of the Reds and Blues were riding the machines; Sarge, Grif, and Simmons in one, Wash, Tucker, and Caboose in another, Doc, Donut, and Lopez in the last, and Carolina rode alone on the smaller one.

"Could they make any more noise?" asked Weiss.

"Don't ask me, I don't know them any more than you do."

"I've seen one of them fight, and he's not too bad, but he nearly got killed for hitting on Blake. By the time I had pulled Yang away the first time, he saw the rings on their fingers, put two and two together and somehow got five because the very next thing he says as that they should _both_ sleep with him."

"He did _what?_ " Weiss screeched, causing Ruby to cringe and Quicksilver to swerve slightly. "Please tell me you let Yang hit him."

"I did. Once."

"Good Ruby." Weiss nuzzled up close and spoke softly into Ruby's ear. "Maybe you should get a _cookie_ for a job well done. I know how much you love _cookies_."

Ruby blushed as red as her cloak.

Before any of them could continue what they were doing, three triangular shaped crafts, two of them maroon and one of them yellow, flew past directly over their heads. The three Cybertronians, paranoid as they were, transformed, set their passengers down, and deployed their blasters.

"'Cons! Take cover, protect the humans!" said Silversun as she carried Penny and Sydney underneath an overpass.

"Wait! They aren't Decepticons; it's just the Jedi," said Sydney loud enough for the Femmes and the Reds and Blues, who had also stopped, to hear.

"What are Jedi?" asked Mercury.

"Jedi are the people who brought all of us here.

"Oh. Then what were those flying things. They looked a lot like a Seeker Trine."

"Those were their starfighters. It's one of the Jedi exclusive vehicles that they use. That particular model is one they use for general transportation as well as dogfights, although they have another model that is better suited for dogfights."

"Wait, how do you know all of this?" asked Penny.

"I was born in the Republic, and I used to be a nerd for starships," replied Sydney.

"Oh, okay then."

"In that case, shall we get going again? We're probably late by now," said Quicksilver.

* * *

Teams RWBY, Red, and Blue arrived in the Decagon only a few minutes after the Jedi touched down. Silversun bid them farewell, while the Twins followed them in.

When they arrived at the meeting room, the Twins helped all of them onto the War Room table.

When all had settled, introductions began. Representing the Autobots were Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Ultra Magnus, Prowl, Jazz, and Changewing. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka introduced themselves as Jedi and peacekeepers of the Republic. Weiss stepped forward and claimed the title of diplomat for Remnant, while Carolina was unanimously voted by the teams to represent the UEG and the UNSC.

"Greetings to you all; now we can get on to business," began Optimus. "It is not my intention to put any of you in harm's way; however I have been reminded time and again that if we Autobots fall here, Megatron's Warmongering will eventually consume the entire galaxy, and he will use your species as a labor force to rebuild Cybertron in his image. Because of this grave danger, I have relented to my advisors and allowed outside assistance to arrive. That is where you all come in. While I have been leading my forces in this conflict for longer than most of you have been alive, I have not been leading your forces, and so will defer to your leadership skills where your own men and women are concerned. That being said, let us all report what we bring to the table." He gestured to Weiss to begin first.

"Remnant could only spare one team of Huntresses; in fact we went behind the Council's back in coming here. Team RWBY is currently the best team in active duty, and the second best in Remnant's history. Employed as a small strike team with minimal but noticeable escort, we could swiftly eliminate small priority targets."

"The Reds and Blues, former simulation troopers, single-handedly brought about an end to the insurrection started by the Freelancer Protocol. We would serve you best in much the same manner as Team RWBY."

"The Galactic Republic saw fit to send two Star Destroyers, each outfitted with a full complement of Assault Tanks, AT-TEs, and six battalions each of standard infantry. Air supports one flight group of ARC fighter-bombers, Y-Wing bombers, and four flights of LAAT/is as well as several LAAT/cs, which carry AT-TEs into battle."

While there had been only minor comments between earlier statements, this time Ultra Magnus spoke up for nearly the first time in the meeting. "What is the combat effectiveness of each of these units? Would all three of you answer in turn?"

"Team RWBY has successfully defended itself against targets many times the strength of average Hunters, We are one of only two teams in history that have taken out multiple Goliath Grimm, a species that is incredibly hard to kill, as well as the only hunter team in history who has a member that can accomplish that on her own. However, we recommend a sparring session to prove our worth."

"As do we," added Carolina.

"It would take some time to show you the capabilities of all of our units, but if you request it we will comply," replied Obi-Wan.

All eyes and optics turned to Optimus, who seemed to be in thought. Finally he turned to his left, where Jazz and Changewing stood.

"Changewing, have one of your members test Red team, Blue team, and Team RWBY. Jazz, I want you and Ultra Magnus to personally assess the Republic forces."

"Yes, Sir." "You got it." "A'ight."

* * *

 **A/N: Credit to Silversun XD for OC name. Check her out if you're into Anime. Next time: RWBY vs. Random OC of My Choosing.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 24**

* * *

Changewing hobbled into the Training Arena. It had been an hour since the meeting, and he had barely been able to instruct his new human charges to go to this back room in the arena before Ratchet shunted him back to his room; accompanied by his Intended's much to Ratchet's chagrin. After promising Ratchet that he would let Spectre take him to Hightop's medical facility later, Changewing was released. Now, with his mandatory rest over, he had time to meet the mech who had volunteered to fight the humans. Turning the corner, he audibly groaned.

"No one else volunteered?"

"Now what's that supposed to mean?" asked the hulking maroon mech that towered over pretty much everyone save Spectre, Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, and Grimlock.

"Nothing, Head Hunter; just that you're a little too… angry, to be training new recruits."

"So? As the only former 'Con on the team, only I can give them a real taste of what they're up against."

"Fine, fine, just no killing. If I need to get a shock collar for you don't think I won't."

"That won't be necessary; I'll keep an eye on him. The humans are starting to grow on me, anyway," said Silversun from where she'd just appeared behind her Sparkmate.

Head Hunter visibly flinched, but only Silversun noticed.

"Good, that means I won't have to incur the wrath of the Hatchet by doing something I'll regret," said Changewing.

The three of them walked in to see Team RWBY stretching, the Reds and Blues either following their examples or arguing, and Penny and Sydney simply chatting on the sidelines.

"Alright, listen up! First, we're having solo battles, then team battles. Your opponent is this hulking mass of armor named Head Hunter." Changewing banged his fist against his stomach plating for emphasis. "First up: Sarge."

Sarge, being Sarge, stepped forward with his trusty shot-gun, prepared to face down the admittedly red menace. He had his ass summarily handed to him, simply because Hunter picked him up and threatened to split him in half. As each of the fights with the Reds and Blues went on, it was clear that they valued teamwork far over solo work.

All except Carolina. When Hunter prepared to pick her up in some new and exciting manner as he had done every single time before hand, taking two tries on Wash, she vanished. She had had Epsilon triggered her Armor's super-speed and so had been able to easily dodge Hunter's attack. For his part, he hadn't used a single cannon throughout the entire session, so his infamous anger wasn't even close to surfacing when she dodged. After two further successful escapes, however, he started to get mad. So he turned into his tank form and fired point blank into Carolina's chest.

And missed again.

She'd been waiting for that exact moment; jumping quickly on top of him and pulling out dual plasma rifles, she fired tons of plasma into his armor, trying to melt his turret into one position. Before she could succeed, he changed back, this time pulling his Riot Cannon out of sub-space, and firing it in her general direction each time she stopped moving. After six shots, he'd run out of patience. Charging an entire clip into one blast, he slammed the barrel of his cannon into the ground and fired, causing a massive shockwave to move over the arena, knocking Carolina off her feet. Before he could step on her like he wanted to, though, Silversun was there with a dangerous glint in her eyes; and just like that, his anger faded.

Changewing eventually agreed to continue the spars, but only when Carolina herself assured him she was fine, if a little pissed she'd lost.

Of the members of RWBY, none were too entirely confident in their ability to best Hunter. He was altogether a different animal from both Goliath Grimm and Atlesian Paladins. Yang, of course, wouldn't let anyone see her growing nervousness, and so volunteered to go first. Yang's Ember Celica probably didn't have near the penetration power as any of her teammate's weapons, but she knew that she'd be able to take even more hits that all of them combined. She wasn't sure if she wanted to take a hit from one of his massive fists; or worse, his cannons.

Pumping her fists, Yang crouched into her combat stance. Even though she saw no discernible reason to fight him, she decided right then that somehow that tank was going down.

Head Hunter started once again with the same yet different first attack. Rather than dodge it, as Hunter was no doubt expecting, Yang jumped onto his arm and ran up its length, using shells from Ember Celica to speed herself along. As soon as she was high enough, she smashed her right in a devastating hook that succeeded in sending Hunter across the room, slamming into the wall below where everyone else was seated. Yang landed on the ground in a perfect two point landing, before stretching back out into her combat stance. Already, her eyes glowed red.

Head Hunter, on the other hand, was dazed, confused, and most of all; pissed. As soon as the static cleared from his vision, he slammed his battle-mask into place and _roared_ his fury at the blonde. Yang merely smirked.

Hunter unsubspaced his riot cannons, firing six shots in quick succession. Yang dodged all but the last, which caught her directly in center-mass, launching her to the opposite end of the room in much the same manner as she'd sent him.

"Yang!" cried out Ruby and Blake simultaneously. Ruby checked her scroll and saw that Yang's aura had been dropped to less than half, but was holding steady.

Hunter offered no respite. In a blind rage, he transformed into his alt-mode, taking aim at the cloud of dust on the opposite end of the room. He fired a shot directly into the middle, then immediately reloaded and allowed the dust to clear. Before one mote had settled, however, Yang was on top of him, blazing with fire, eyes and hair glowing red and yellow. She stood next to his turret and punched it so hard it spun all the way around, and as it came back around she jumped and punched it downwards. The force of the strike forced him out of his alt-mode. As he lay there, prone, she landed next to his head and swung one more time; and then she stopped, and walked away.

When Head Hunter came to, he was livid. Struggling to get up, he locked his optics on where the rest of Team RWBY was helping Yang to calm down and begin the process of recovering her Aura. Raising his riot cannons once again, he fired, only for the shot to be blocked by twelve swords levitating in the air and spinning almost too quickly to track.

"Hunter, that's enough!" called Silversun, but he couldn't hear her, such was his anger. Charging both of his cannons once again caused them to glow as they had before, obscuring his vision.

Penny, sensing that Hunter could no longer be reasoned with or see her, leaped up and over the trajectory of his cannons even as everyone else in the way moved to the sides. Using her swords to carry her closer and closer to Hunter allowed her to sail over the incoming planet-buster shots that decimated the area everyone used to be in and caused the roof to collapse on top of Silversun and Changewing, pinning them.

Penny slashed at his face in an attempt to blind him, but Hunter had gained heightened senses when his battle mask had been deployed. This allowed him to use a motion tracker to see exactly where Penny was.

Penny's eyes widened into saucers as Hunter's fist came out of no-where, sending her towards a wall even faster than Yang had smashed into it.

Until Sydney caught her; Head Hunter, confused as to why his prey hadn't been blasted into smithereens, looked to where he should have seen Penny's broken body. What he saw instead was a dazed penny being set gently down on the floor, and a black, silver, and purple femme with spider legs spread behind its back and what looked like webbing spread between its fingers.

"You hurt my friends. You will pay," said Sydney as she opened her eyes to reveal glowing purple optics.

* * *

 **A/N:** **So yeah. those of you who saw that coming, good, you aren't blind. To those that didn't: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 25**

()()()()()()()()

"You hurt my friends. You will pay."

Sydney lifted herself up onto her spider legs, holding her body horizontally for balance. Rushing in low, she dodged the blaster fire sent her way with a skill she didn't even know she had. using her hands to fire webs into both Head Hunter's leg and the wall, she pulled tight, as hard as she could, causing him to fall. After cutting the webs off of her hands, she rushed over to him and started using those very webs to tie him to the floor. When his hands and feet were locked to the floor, she climbed up onto his chest and looked down at the glaring mech.

Suddenly, an alarm started blaring, followed by the base's intercom sparking to life.

"We have a rogue Decepticon on our scopes. Repeat: a rogue Decepticon is approaching the base."

Changewing and Silversun finally escaped from the pile of rubble they were underneath, the former snapping his hand to his comm and calling out on the Officer's channel.

"Status report!"

Jazz was the first to reply. "Lone Decepticon inbound. Moving too slow for a seeker, Red Alert swears it's a chopper. The contact is too slow for Vortex, and too small for Blackout. There aren't many other Decepticons brave or stupid enough to assault the base. Prime recommends that you and whoever's with you to stay with the Humans," he said in his customary accent.

"Understood, however I'll need Bulkhead and Spectre to come to the training arena later to escort Head Hunter to the brig."

"Again? What did he do this time?"

"Nearly murdered a human, but then some stuff happened that I'd rather brief everyone in person for, so it'll have to wait. You focus on repelling whoever's idiotic enough to assault the base."

"Understood, Changewing; Jazz out."

()()()()()()()()

The Decepticon helicopter beat the air with her rotors and lamented her poor top speed. The foolish Autobots who stood in her way were quickly neutralized; she was on a mission and nothing, not even murder, would slow her down. Eventually, the anti-air flak was too great for ever her flying skill and she had to transform and land…

…Directly in front of her old friend.

"Airachnid…"

"Arcee," said Airachnid, though with none of her usual playfulness. This wasn't Airachnid the Sociopath, murder of countless 'Bots and the desecrator of an entire planet; no, _this_ Airachnid could feel _something_ , something small, but still there, and she hated it.

"You're going down, Airachnid," said Arcee with her usual venom when dealing with the spider-femme.

"Kindly get out of my way, Arcee. I'm currently on a mission of high importance."

"And what mission is that, Airachnid?" asked Optimus Prime from where he'd just appeared.

Airachnid began to get even more frustrated. She wasn't in the mood to fight anyone right now; she just wanted the pain in her Spark to go away. "I'm just looking for someone. Not to kill, or maim, or anything. Just to see with my own optics."

"Who is it?"

Ignoring Arcee's protest, Airachnid responded to Optimus with a noncommittal answer. "I don't know who it is. All I've got is this _feeling…."_

Straightening up, Optimus narrowed his optics at her before removing his battle-mask. "You may proceed, under armed escort."

"Optimus, you can't be serious! She's a murderer!"

"Where you see a murderer I see a troubled being. Every sentient being deserves an opportunity for redemption. I believe Airachnid's is fast approaching."

"What are you talking about Prime? I'm just here to find out why I can feel someone here. Don't think that some sort of magical change is going to happen and I'm going to become an Autobot."

"I understand, Airachnid. Where do you sense the other being?"

"So you're my armed guard? Well, at least there will be credibility."

Arcee growled, but considering the Prime still hadn't disarmed his Path Blaster, she decided that her loyalty to the Autobots was more important than her grudge match.

Airachnid, Optimus, and Arcee continued on through the base, receiving many odd looks and armed blasters along the way, and each time Optimus calmly explained the situation. Eventually they reached the training facilities, where Airachnid began picking up the pace more and more, until the three of them were sprinting towards the only training arena with an open door.

Airachnid entered quickly, finding several small organics off to one side, two Cybertronians off to the other, and the main subject of her interest in the center of the room: a red Cybertronian strapped to the floor with _her_ webs and another spider-bot that looked oddly familiar sitting on his chest. Her optics widened in shock, before she rushed forward and picked the smaller femme up and immediately begin inspecting her.

"Whoa what- who are you?" exclaimed Sydney.

"Oh my little Silverdust! I thought you were dead! Where's your brother? I left you both in the same place when I went to deal with those– never mind. What happened?"

"Silverdust? My name is Sydney. Wait, you're the crazy giant spider robot from my nightmares! Let go of me!"

"Silverdust, calm down! It's okay. I'm your Carrier. Can't you feel it in your Spark?"

"Spark? I don't…. That tug… is that you? But how; I didn't even know I was Cybertronian until today! My whole life I've been organic! How can I have a Cybertronian mother if I'm normally an organic?"

"That's because your father was an organic too. I'm part organic, as well. I'm not sure how it happened, and I'm not sure how I became sparked with the two of you– Wait, where's your brother?"

"What brother, I have a brother?"

"Can you not feel him in your spark? You're twins; there should be something there…"

"All I feel is a weak tug from you, but it's getting stronger, I think. I don't feel anything from a brother, though."

Airachnid's head slumped. "If that planet were not already a barren husk I would go there and rid it of life all over again," she mumbled to herself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing; let's talk about something else. Do you have any memory of what happened to you?"

"My first memory is in the orphanage on Bilbringi station. I'm sorry, I don't know what happened."

"Then you and I will have to look for your brother."

"Now hold on! I came here to help the Autobots defeat the Decepticons! You can't just take me away, mother or not. I grew up without you, I don't need you!"

Airachnid's optics widened, before closing. "No, I suppose you don't. By organic standards you're nearly an adult." She refocused on Sydney. "Is there any way I can make it up to you for not being able to find you all those years ago?"

"Would you stay here? Let me get to know you?"

Upon hearing her request, Airachnid set Sydney down and turned towards the door.

Arcee and Optimus both never thought they'd see the day that Airachnid would look so pleading. What she said next shocked them even more, even if only Arcee showed it.

"Well, Prime, you heard her. Can she keep me? I promise not to bite."

Optimus snapped himself out of his stupor relatively quickly. He gave a small smile, powered down his blaster, and gave his response.

"Yes, on the condition that you power down all of your weapons systems including your webs and acid."

"Of course, Prime."

"Whoa, you have acid? Do I have acid?"

"I don't know, Silverdust. You're abilities are as foreign to me as they are to you."

"Oh. What can you tell me about my father?"

"He… died. He was killed by his own species for falling in love with me. So I hunted down and exterminated his killer, then was going to escape with you and Torrent and raise you in secrecy away from this war, but then you were gone and I… I slaughtered an entire species. Then I came back here and joined the Decepticons and forced myself to stop feeling. I'm so sorry I lost you, but I'm so glad I finally found you. Will you ever forgive me?"

"I think I can. What did you call me again? Silver…?"

"Your name is Silverdust."

"Silverdust. _Silverdust._ I like it, way better than Sydney at least. Tell me more about everything, where I came from, where _you_ came from, I want to know it all."

"So long as you tell me things about yourself as well, we have a deal."

()()()()()()()()

 **A/N: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Airachnid is waaaaaaaaaaaaay OOC. I don't care. This is my universe and I do what I want lol.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 26**

 **A/N: to Seeker3: I'm glad you enjoyed, I hope everyone had a similar, positive reaction.**

 **Anyways, on with the chapter.**

* * *

"So, you're telling me that the tiny purple organic was actually a _techno-organic_ the entire time? And that Airachnid is her Carrier?" said Jazz.

"That about sums it up, yeah," replied Changewing. He was on a landing pad awaiting the arrival of Spectre, the only Autobot on base big enough to take him all the way out to the Sea of Rust to Hightop's medical facility. "And apparently she's staying here, under Arcee's careful eye, and is training little Silverdust to fight just like her. Think about it; two unstoppable, terrifying spiders ripping 'Cons to shreds."

"That would be a sight to see. Those organics from remnant aren't anything to sniff at either, though. I wanna see them in action. Anyway, Spectre's here, I'll see you later. Tell your sister I said hello."

"I'll try to work it in while she's throttling me. 'Sup, Spectre."

"You ready to roll?"

"As I'll ever be. Let's go."

Jazz watched as Spectre transformed and carried Changewing away. Chuckling a little to himself, he stepped of the pad and resolved to go and find the spiders and their ever present guard.

* * *

"While your secondary legs are indeed formidable weapons, you cannot rely solely on them. Get your arms up, try again."

Silverdust sighed in frustration. When she'd asked Airachnid to train her, she hadn't expected her to go from doting mother to drill sergeant. "Why are you being so hard on me?"

"Exactly two Decepticons on this entire planet will go easy on you: The first one you defeat, and Soundwave. Although for Soundwave going easy is just space-bridging the aggressor halfway across the planet; but my point is valid. Arcee, would you want to be coddled, or would you want to be able to fight?"

"Don't bring me into this. I'm just here to make sure you don't kill anyone."

"How many times must I tell you that I won't kill you?"

"Doesn't matter, actions speak louder than words."

"So how long must I go not killing anyone for you to let it go?"

"Dunno. I might get bored."

"Don't you think you're giving her a hard time?" interjected Silverdust.

"Listen, kid; you don't even know half of what your mother's done. She's murdered an entire species, killed countless 'Bots for sport, and is a high ranking Decepticon. You should be ashamed of having her as a mother."

Airachnid was suddenly on top of Arcee; optics narrowed in anger and clawed legs hovering inches away from Arcee's chest. "You are not to speak to my daughter in that way," she growled, before straightening up and hauling the shaken two-wheeler to her feet and returning to an equally shocked Silverdust. "I think that's enough hand-to-hand combat for today. Let's practice your transformations."

* * *

Spectre dropped Changewing off outside of the building, then left him there citing work he had to do back at base.

Changewing shuddered as he limped into the door. Walking up to the personal comm unit on the front desk, he keyed the mic and called out to anyone who was listening.

"Hey, Hightop? It's Changewing. I'm in need of a tune-up and neither Echo nor Ratchet are uh, up to the challenge. Think you could come down here?"

The sound of a motorcycle engine was not reassuring.

His sister came flying out of a tunnel near top speed, and transformed into her primary form while still barreling towards him. After one of the most painful takedowns he'd ever received was over, she sat on his chestplate and glared at him.

"How did you get hurt?"

"Short list or long list?"

She slapped him.

"I was shot; I crashed; I was in sand; I crashed again; and cut my arm for Energon."

"Why'd you have to cut your arm?"

"There's not a lot of Energon off-world, y'know?"

"Why didn't you bring any with you in sub-space?"

"Because…" Changewing's face suddenly fell in realization. "Primus I'm stupid."

"Uh huh. C'mon, Stupid, let's get you to the OR. Hightop, you can come out now."

* * *

"The test subject is showing remarkable affinity to the magmatic inducer, Darth Plagueis. I believe your soldier will be ready within a week. Then I will return to Lord Megatron, where I am needed."

"Of course, Shockwave; I have brought something for you to tinker with, first. I need you to put the smaller inducer into the core of this hammer."

"Considering this hammer isn't a living being, it should be no consequence."

"Good. Finish these two things and I will return you from whence you came."

* * *

"How could Shockwave have been so stupid?" Spyblade mumbled to himself. "Mixing Energon is asking for trouble. Unless…" Spyblade went over his calculations. "If I were to solve for the Law of Conservation of Energon…. By the Allspark, it works! I will have to test it on one of the other test subjects in storage before we begin trials on Her, but in the meantime I must report my findings to Soundwave. Lord Megatron will not be happy with Starscream when he returns, and I want as little affiliation with that sniveling excuse for a Decepticon as possible. Assistant!"

Slicer looked up from what he was doing. "Yes, commander Spyblade?" After he had helped the Wreckers, Dinobots, and members of Apocalypse sneak into Kaon, he'd been lying low, spending most of his time in Spyblade's lab.

"I'm going to report to Soundwave. If you could go to the storeroom and retrieve that sample of Toxic Energon I had prepared, I would appreciate it. I recommend that you wear appropriate safety garments."

Slicer shuddered, but nodded his affirmative. "Tox-En?" he wondered aloud. "What does he want with ToxEn? Is he going to use it on one of the Autobots in storage? Maybe I should destroy it… and not get caught? Yeah, right; that'll happen."

* * *

"They're gone?"

"Yes, Cinder. Team RWBY, Penny, and all of the outsiders have left. With team STRQ still mostly out of the picture, all that leaves is JNPR, SSSN, CFVY, and other scattered Hunter Teams to stop us from completely taking over this planet," said the pale woman from the shadows.

"And how do you propose we do that?" asked Roman.

"Simple. We start with Vacuo, then Mistral, then Atlas, and finally Vale. Once we've taken all four major governments out, we go after the Hunter academies. After that, we consolidate our powers and restart the manufacture of Grimm."

"Bold plan," replied Cinder. "How will you pull it off?"

The pale woman stepped out of the shadows, revealing pale hair, black and red eyes, and lines covering her face. "Have a little Faith, Cinder," replied Salem. "All will go according to plan, and my Sister will be unable to stop me this time."

* * *

 **A/N: to the several people who've added themselves to the followers list, thank you, it means a lot. Don't be afraid to put this story out here, more traffic on this thing would be awesome.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 27**

* * *

"Mrs. Rose, you are still injured, you need to sit down."

"Winter, I'm fine. And please, just call me Summer. I've been cooped up in this bed for too long. While we sit here and wait for word on Team RWBY, Salem is out there regrouping. We need to attack her now, while she's still reeling."

"Summer, leave the poor woman alone. Sit down, please; when you're fully recovered _all_ of Team STRQ will take on your sister, together. Deal?" asked Raven from where she stood at the other end of the room.

Summer slumped in defeat. "Fine, I'll behave. But the very second a doctor clears me for combat we're gearing up. Volunteer Huntsman teams included; which reminds me, have Pyrrha contact all of the Active Huntsman teams, partners, and solos. We'll need everyone this time around."

"What makes you say that? You've beaten her once before, you can do it again with help."

"That's the problem, last time she had help, and this time she will again. Plus, Weiss discovered that Salem and the rest are the ones behind Grimm, and their families have been for years."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The Sustrai, Black, and Fall families discovered a long time ago that by combining certain types of Dust, Dark creatures would be created. Weiss's Semblance works in much the same way; however her minions are bound to her. Most Grimm only serve their Alphas, but Alpha Grimm serve Overlord Grimm, which in turn serve Salem, who is currently being possessed by… something, I'm not sure what."

"What's an Overlord Grimm?"

"An incredibly ancient and powerful Grimm. There are Base Grimm, split up into Alphas and Omegas. Base Grimm are the Taijitu, led by King Taijitu; Death Stalkers, they don't have Alphas, they answer directly to Overlords; Beowolves, led by Alpha Beowolves; Boarbutusks, led by Razorbacks; Nevermores, led by Giant Nevermores; Ursai, led by Ursa Majors; Creeps, led by Raptor Creeps; and Goliaths, led by Matriarch Goliath; among others. There are only two breeds of Overlord Grimm, a land based and a water based one; Leviathan Grimm, which are exceedingly rare, and Drakes, which spawn other Grimm simply by existing. These two breeds in turn respond directly to her."

"What if we made Grimm?" asked Winter.

"We couldn't. In order to perform the blood sacrifice which is required to create an Overlord, which you would need to keep from creating mindless monsters, you'd have to be a maiden. The problem is, once you perform the sacrifice and create your first Drake and Leviathan, you lose your maiden powers. Salem used to be the Winter Maiden, which was incredibly awkward growing up because my eyes were constantly telling me to kill her."

"Wait hold on, back up, you lost me," said Raven. "What do your eyes have to do with this?"

"Do you remember back on our fourth mission after graduation, when you got cornered by that Death Stalker?"

"Yeah, I also remember it just keeling over and then you hugging me. What does that have to do with it?"

"Silver Eyed Warriors are capable of killing both Grimm and Magic users, outside of semblances, with a mere glance if we so chose. Doing so is incredibly dangerous and taxing. No matter what kind of Grimm or how many, our Aura is immediately depleted to nearly zero. It comes with the unfortunate side effect of hating Grimm and Maidens with a passion. It's probably one of the main reasons Salem went off the deep end and allowed a former previous Spring Maiden to teach her."

"Exactly how many Maidens have gone dark? You'd think there would be points in our history that were Grimm free."

"The sacrifice allows for eternal life."

"So there could be more people like Salem?"

"No. The Blood Sacrifice requires the heart of the previous Dark Maiden."

"Fuck. That's really dark," said Raven after a moment of awkward silence had passed.

"It is an ancient and dark blood magic. Hearts tend to be vital components to the darkest of spells."

"How do you know so much about this?"

"Because I taught her it," said a voice.

The three women present turned to see Professor Ozpin standing in the doorway. His hair was still silver, and his cane seemed to be less for show and more for function than when Team RWBY had been inducted into Beacon, but he still had the same glasses and half smile.

"Hello, Professor Ozpin," said Summer.

"Please, just call me Oz," he replied, chuckling a little. "If you're all wondering why _I_ know that information, as you no doubt should be, that will have to wait for another time. All I can tell you is that I have good friends in High Places. In any case, Miss Schnee, I must ask you to come with me, I have a request that only the Schnee Dust Company can comply."

"Of course, Professor; I'll see you two later."

As they walked out of the room, Taiyang walked in from the end of the hallway and entered.

"Let's give them some privacy," said Ozpin. "Walk with me?"

"Yes, sir," she replied.

"Please, Miss Winter, drop the formalities. I am no longer in charge of Beacon Academy, nor do I hold a seat on the Council of Vale. At this point, one could even consider me a civilian."

"With your level of skill as a Hunter? I honestly doubt that."

"True, true. Still though, the Roses, Xiao-longs, and Branwens have been hunting families since the first Maiden went Dark, and the Schnees have been providing them with Dust since about that time as well. Teams STRQ and RWBY are the product of Generations of preparation. Not only have they recombined the lost families, but they've also added several powerful people to their roster of friends, family, and other associates. If anyone will be able to stop the Dark Maidens, it is you and your family."

"As if I'll be any help. I'm just a military commander with more than rudimentary control over her semblance."

"And exactly who will lead the Clones and UNSC forces when you have to conscript their help?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"This battle can never be won on just one planet. Though the Grimm only exist on this planet, the people who first worked together to create them are all over this galaxy and others."

"Exactly how much do you know about the goings on of the rest of the universe?"

"Too much, Miss Schnee; I'll let you in on a little secret: I was born eighteen years before the first Maiden fell to temptation."

"How long ago was that?" asked Winter with growing apprehension.

"More than one thousand years ago. I reincarnate every one hundred years or so, my Soul passing on to some boy randomly chosen who is anywhere from fourteen to eighteen years of age."

"So what was your first name?"

"That, my friend, is a secret that I'd prefer to stay lost to time."

"What about your semblance? What happens when your Soul changes bodies?"

"The two Semblances fight for control. So far the original has maintained dominance, but it has taken core aspects from some of my previous iterations."

"And the boy's Soul? What happens to it?"

"It is either absorbed, increasing my Aura, or it is rejected and, separated from a body, dies."

* * *

 **A/N: Holy crap this went in a fun new direction. I'm honestly as surprised as y'all are at what I just wrote. So, Ozpin's little reincarnation thing is way darker than in canon, Maidens aren't always the good guys, and Salem and Summer are sisters if you haven't caught that yet. Pretty sure I've hammered that into everyone's skull deep enough, but hey. Also, the Sith and Dark Maidens have been working together for a while, but why? Heh heh, you'll find out eventually. Also, sorry that there was no action or Halo or Star Wars or Transformers in this one, but I promise that the next chapter might make up for it maybe. This was actually just supposed to be a small little segment but I just kept writing and writing and then I breached my minimum chapter length and I was all like "well shizz, man, guess I'll have to just stop it here." So yeah.**


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 28**

* * *

Wash was sitting in the Twilight's mess hall when he first heard it. His armor's Recovery One beacon transmitter had been recalibrated to Spartan frequencies shortly after the end of the Battle of New Mombasa. It had allowed him to help the UNSC find the bodies of Noble team on Reach; barring Noble-3 and Noble-6, the former for now obvious reasons; as well as other Spartan-I's, II's, and even III's that had gone missing or were killed in hostile territory and were deemed "unrecoverable". So when he heard a Priority One recovery beacon, though faint, he didn't immediately dismiss it. In fact, he did the opposite: he told Carolina about it, which had led to their current predicament.

"Okay Marines, this is a Priority One distress beacon. Wash's Locator Beacon has pinpointed its location to roughly 10,000 miles southwest of here. We need volunteers to go with us to recover whoever had the misfortune to crash land on a metal planet."

"I'll go," called Ryan Higgins. A moment later, several other Marines had stepped forward as well.

"Good. Load up people; we need to find that armor and anyone inside of it A-S-A-P."

Ryan and the rest of the marines loaded up into the three Warthogs, while Wash and Carolina got on two mongooses. Before they rolled out, Carolina left Tucker in charge, because even though he was an asshole, he had the ability to corral the Reds, Blues, and Marines effectively.

* * *

"What was my father like?" asked Silverdust.

Airachnid tilted her head back and sighed. Silverdust was perched on her lap and they had been talking for quite a while. Arcee remained outside of the small room that was serving as Airachnid's quarters until Optimus Prime convinced the remaining members of his council to allow Airachnid to remain on base.

"Your father was, unconventional, for an organic. His species was in an industrial stone age for the longest time, until he and his father started really trying to innovate. The Reecian race advanced faster in thirty years than most other species did in centuries. The closest second advancement speed would be Earth based humans second advance to space, and that was only because two of their factions were racing to their planet's satellite."

"How do you know histories of so many planets so well?"

"I used to be a historian, believe it or not. I had a ship, and I would fly out across the galaxy, quietly observing planets and species. When I made my rounds, I would fly home for a time, then go back out and explore further. Eventually, and I mean incredibly recently, I returned to the core of the galaxy. Mind you by this time I was having to work harder and harder to keep my observations hidden from the ever increasing activities of the more technologically advanced species. My luck ran out that day, because the main thruster to my ship was hit by a rogue asteroid. I was able to control the crash so no lasting damage was made to the ship, but I knew I wouldn't be able to take off again. I was able to study my notes and the night sky and determine where I was: Reecee."

"What happened next?"

"I detected a small group of organics mobilizing towards my position. My noted told me this planet was far from ready for 'close encounters', so I quickly hid my ship underneath some local vegetation and then hid myself high up in the trees…"

* * *

"My Prince, it is too dangerous this far from the path. We should turn back."

Prince Drumand Catholin, heir to the throne of Reecee, looked back at his aid in astonishment. "Ah, Hunter! Whereas your sense of adventure? No meteor before has landed so close, nor has it burned as brightly in the daylight! This one was different; an outlier! We must investigate."

"While I agree that an investigation should indeed be conducted, I disagree with your insistence that you leave the palace grounds without an armed escort."

"Reecee has known peace for three generations, now. You and I will be more than enough for any animals that were spooked by the meteor. Now come, quickly."

They forged a path through the thick vegetation, eventually coming across a large swath of destruction, marking the path of the crashed projectile.

"Look at the size of this! Most of the trees weren't even crushed but snapped off at their roots!"

"Yet still you do not sense the danger."

"You should be as excited as I. King Andrüs would-"

"Not have allowed you to come alone. Your father may be a visionary, almost as much as yourself, but that does not give you the right to go traipsing off into an unknown situation."

"In any case, discoveries must be made. We wish to leave our planet, what better way than to study foreign objects? There is more out there to tending to life here on Reecee, I feel it in my bones."

"Whatever you say, your highness."

They pressed on, following the path until it came to a stop at a renewed tree-line that seemed more undisturbed than the trees to either side of the path.

"Hold on a minute. Where's the meteor gone? There's no way something that massive could have just disappeared."

"Your highness, we should leave this area at once. I can feel something watching us."

"Why should we worry of watchers?"

"If anything was not spooked away by what happened here, then we must assume it is a rabid beast or as insane as you are."

"I'm not insane, but I see your point. Hold on, what's that?"

They looked towards the base of the trees and noticed several things: first, they were in a perfectly straight row; second, that they seemed to have no roots; and third, they seemed to have been forced into the ground fairly recently.

"Hunter," whispered Drumand.

"I see it."

"What do you suppose has the strength to force _trees_ into the ground?"

"I have no idea, but I do not want to find out. It must be a creature of both incredible size and considerable intelligence, and must have arrived with the meteor."

That was the wrong thing to say, for as soon as "with the meteor" exited his mouth, Drumand's growing fear was immediately quashed by burning curiosity once more. Before Hunter could even blink, Drumand was climbing through the line of "trees".

He ignored the calls of his companion in lieu of climbing further and further into the vegetation, finding more broken stumps and replanted trees as he went. He hiked for maybe a full minute before he came across the most curious object he'd ever seen.

Instead of finding the smoking remains of a meteor as he expected, he came across a massive, metal object he could only describe as a space ship. His father and he had designed many a craft late at night when they spoke of being the first to leave Reecee, but none of them had ever looked like this. While theirs were long, straight, and upright; this craft was short, sleek, and appeared to act more like one of his grandfather's planes than a space craft. He could clearly see that a door was open, and what a door it was. It towered over him, allowing even some of the smaller trees easy entrance if they could move. Stepping lightly, he slowly entered the brightly lit corridor, and followed it until he came across a large chair.

"I wonder what sort of creature would require a chair that size?"

"Beats me. It is a little difficult to sit in, there's absolutely no cushioning, and that was painfully apparent during this landing."

Drumand spun around and saw a giant, feminine robot leaning against the door frame.

"Oh. Hello," said he, before promptly fainting.

* * *

"What happened after that?" asked Silverdust.

"That will have to wait for another time. It is getting late, and we need rest."

"I don't feel sleepy."

"That doesn't mean you aren't. Trust me, even techno-organics need our rest, as do actual Cybertronians. Come on, let's get to our berths."

* * *

 **A/N: I'm back! Oh and, btw, my computer is dead again, fully this time, too. So I got Word on my phone, and OneDrive, and finally got this chapter out. Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha! In any case, really sorry about the massive delay, and the even further delays that will be coming for the rest of this semester. Or maybe not. Who knows? I'm either getting a chrome book with my scholarship money or I'll just steal my sister's (follow sspidergwenn for spidergwen fanfiction[IF SHE'D FRICKEN POST THE DURN THINGS]) In any case, I've digressed. I hope you enjoyed Chapter 28 and I will see you all next time with the stunning cinclusion of the Reecian Fate.**


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 29**

* * *

She checked over the systems of the ship for one last time.

She'd activated the recovery beacon shortly after her monthly bio-scans of the planet had come up with something other than flat negatives. Even still, she worried about the ship. From what she could tell, they had crashed on the surface of a planet made entirely out of metal, and that it was heavily layered and therefore not so dense that the gravity would have flattened the ship like a pancake upon crashdown. Unfortunately, when she had finally repaired the scanning equipment it had alerted her to the striking lack of organic life in the area. Not that she was surprised, given that this was a metal planet, after all.

Now though, UNSC forces, as only a UNSC sanctioned recovery agent would be able to pick up the beacon, were mobilizing on their position. It was time to wake Him up. Pressing the button to begin the wake-up procedure, she mumbled under in an undertone as she waited.

"C'mon, John. Wake up, I need you."

* * *

Silverdust awoke before the dawn. Even though sometimes she felt like she didn't need sleep, it still felt rejuvenating. Turning over to look into the large room she now shared with Airachnid, she found the femme already awake and doing what looked to be a Cybertronian form of yoga. She faced away from the bunks and was twisting all of her limbs in fantastic ways.

 _I still almost can't believe that Airachnid is my mother. A Cybertronian! I knew I was different but… still._

"Think any harder and smoke might come out of your ears. Or your audio-receptors, depending on what form you're in."

"Hey!" she bristled, then calmed. "How did you know I was up."

Airachnid, titanic though she was, seemed to shrink in on herself before she spoke. "I, like you, am a techno-organic. Unlike you, my organic race is a carnivorous race of spiders." She held her legs aloft for emphasis. "Their predatory instincts are what allow me to hear exactly how an organic's body is behaving."

"So you can hear me? Awesome!"

Airachnid looked over in shock. "You're not afraid?"

"Afraid! How could I be afraid of someone so awesome? Everything about you is awesome, and I want you to teach me to fight!"

Airachnid chuckled, before sighing. "Alright, but first I must finish an earlier promise, telling you about your father."

* * *

Airachnid caught him before he injured himself, and lowered him slowly to the ground. _There'll be no getting out of this now,_ she thought, so she decided to face the music. Carrying the prince outside, she climbed through the overgrowth until she found Hunter, who had begun frantically searching for the Prince.

"Excuse me, do you think you could help me with this man?"

Hunter looked up, flabbergasted, until he saw the prince in her arms; he became very serious.

"Follow me."

And so they went. Arachnid brought the Prince to the palace, and the King met her and enjoyed her company. The Council, who would soon be taking over to ensure a lawful and peaceful transition of power from the King to the Prince, did not like the idea that an alien was on their planet. But they could nothing about it.

Weeks passed, and soon the Prince and Arachnid were interacting more and more on a daily basis. She taught their scientists about more advanced forms of rocketry, and in turn was left mostly to her own devices. The Prince, however, could not leave her alone. They became fast friends and soon even more than that. Roughly one year before the King was to retire, though they didn't know it yet, Airachnid was Sparked. She didn't know how it happened, but could only conclude that her love for the Prince and his love for her was enough to create a weak spark-bond, which in turn produced a Split-Spark in her sparkling chamber.

When she told the Prince and King, they were both delighted. The King was glad that his son would have an heir, regardless of species, and the Prince was glad to have children. The rest of the royal family also expressed congratulations. The Council, however, were disgusted. They saw Airachnid and the children she now carried as abominations, and so when the sparkling were born a week after the King announced his abdication of the throne, the council hired assassins to kill Prince Drummond, Airachnid, and the sparklings. Though they were successful in killing Drummond, they could not harm any of the Cybertronians. Enraged at the loss of her love, Airachnid slaughtered the assassins even as simultaneous attacks were carried out against the rest of the royal family. Before she could blink, the small family she had been able to join had been destroyed. So she systematically, methodically, hunted down and destroyed the entire species. Only one Cybertronian had ever survived his Sparkmate dying, and even though her bond had been week the emotions powering it had been strong.

For a long time after that incident Airachnid searched the stars for her sparklings, for when she had returned to where she had hidden them they were gone, with signs of two different Cybertronians having been in the area. Hunting down two Cybertronians taxed her to the extreme, and eventually she was forced to return to Cybertron, a broken-hearted femme.

* * *

"So I have a brother?"

"Yes. I named you Silverdust, because your father's crown as a Prince was silver, and your brother was named Torrent after the King's father."

Silverdust paused to absorb this information, then looked up at Airachnid.

"Why did you commit genocide against an entire race for the actions of a small few?"

"I don't know, sweet-spark. My memory of the past several years isn't the best. My last clear memory is looking on your faced for the first and last time. I only really started _really_ recording accurate memories again when I felt you arrive on-world."

"If you could do it over again, would you have killed everyone?"

"No. What I did… what I've done to them and more…. If I could take it back I would. But, for now, I must atone in another way. You said you wanted to learn how to fight like I do? Then we'll need a training arena. And we'll need to discover all of your abilities."

"Sweet!"

* * *

 **A/N: Once again, very sorry about the delay, it's really difficult to type on my phone. It hurts my thumbs. But hey, new kinda short chapter, so we have that. We have Master Chief! You guys didn't think I was gonna leave him out right? Good. So, things are slowly coming to a head on Cybertron, Remnant has been basically abandoned by some of its best fighters, what will happen there, Octane has been doing naughty things outside the galaxy and in the Core, and Chairman Hargrove has probably been schmoozing the Senate since he got there. What could possibly go wrong?**


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 30**

 **A/N: Yeah, I know, I'm terrible. Once again I must apologize for the increasingly infrequent updates. I'd also like to thank all those who have followed, favorited, and reviewed this story. Every contribution counts, whether a show of support or constructive criticism, you name it.**

* * *

"Again. You'll need to be able to switch between forms fluidly for our style of combat."

Silverdust sank to the floor. "Yeah, but I've only known how to do this for basically a day."

"It is difficult for any and every techno-organic to change forms. Are you implying that your plight is any more difficult than another's? In any case, you have it easy, what with having someone who knows how to train you."

Optimus Prime, the majority of his command staff, Generals Kenobi and Skywalker, and the vast majority of their combined forces had left to begin a push to Kaon. The Arbiter and Senator Amidala were scheduled to arrive later the current week. Which left a small battalion to guard all of Iacon in all of that time; though one of its members had taken her time to guard the two spiders instead.

"Y'know, Dust, when I was in training to be an Enforcer, my seargent Prowl was maybe about as half as tough on us as Airachnid is being on you. You should unionize," supplied Arcee.

"She can't form a union, she's my only student and I'm her mother."

"Oh well. Sorry, Squirt."

"Hey! Just because I'm small doesn't mean you can make fun if me!"she called indignantly.

"That's another training lesson. Excepting exactly three mechs I've ever met, I've been treated like that all my life. Get used to it," replied Arcee.

"It's better that you're smaller, anyway. You can sneak into places easier, like the humans."

"What exactly are the humans doing out there, anyway?" asked Silverdust.

()()()()()()()()

Ruby looked down the scope of Crescent Rose, then keyed the mic on her headset.

"Rose to Wings, target acquired."

"Any non-coms?"

"He's getting into the transport with a large, chained, unconscious cybertronian; gender, function, and faction unknown."

"Copy that. Return to Flashback and proceed to rendezvous point Alpha."

"10-4, over and out."

Ruby folded up Crescent Rose and army crawled toward a large gash in the surface behind her. She hopped down a few ledges, before hitting the floor of the crevice. She walked up to a curious lump on the floor of the hole and pulled a camouflaged metal sheet off of a bright yellow jet with cerulean accents. A ladder to the cockpit started to descend, and said cockpit began to open.

"Alright kid, where's boss man sending us now?"

"We're going to rendezvous point alpha."

"Alright, hop in. You wanna fly this time or shall I?"

"I'll let you fly."

He waited for her to strap in before lifting off slowly. Before he poked up above the lip of the crater, he called Wind Ryder.

"You're masking our signals, right?"

"All fliers in the area are invisible to radar. You are not visible in general though, so try not to get spotted, anyway."

"Understood, over and out."

Flash lifted slowly out of the crater, so as not to be seen; then throttled away from the Decepticon shuttle depot. As soon as he had gone a sufficient distance, he pulled up into an orbital flight path.

"Ready to see one of Cybertron's moons?" he asked.

"It's not like I'll be able to do much. This armor is hard to move in." Ruby was wearing a spare set of air-tight clone armor, that she had painted red.

"It's for your own safety. The white one would have my helm on a stake if you were injured – shit!"

Flashback suddenly cut his engines and released several flares, falling into a steep dive. Two missiles slammed into the flares above and behind him, exploding into oblivion. Igniting his engines once more, he slammed the throttle to full forward to pull out of his crash-dive.

"Red, I really hope you don't get motion sickness."

"I don't."

"Thank Primus."

Flashback pulled out of the dive pulling seven G-forces, flattening Ruby into her seat. Meanwhile, his assailant lined up for another shot and began opening fire with his laser weapons. Flash rolled right, coming out of it on the knife edge before pulling back up through the laser fire – missing the projectiles by inches – and flipping around back to the horizontal plane and opening all of his flaps so as to fall behind the enemy fighter.

It was a silver, single-engined seeker, much like Flashback himself. The main difference being the startled yelp at now being caught in Flash's cross hairs.

"You're going down, Screamer!" he called out on a shortwave open channel normally used for this express purpose by fighting seekers.

"I've always been a better flier that you, Flashback! How do you think we shot you down and killed Changewing!"

"Is that what you're telling yourselves? Hah! Wings ain't dead! He's been recovering, sure, but floating off into space does not a dead mech make. In fact, he brought along some friends!"

Throughout this entire exchange, Starscream had been avoiding Flash's laser fire by maneuvering all over, but he couldn't manage to get back behind the yellow flier. Ruby, meanwhile, had loaded Crescent Rose with lightning dust ammunition. Signaling Flash that she was ready, she watched as he throttled up to pass Starscream right as he pulled his air-brakes.

"I've got you, this time!"

"No you don't." The hatch opened and Ruby poked out and fired nearly point-blank into Starscream's forward intake.

"Aauuuuggghhh!" Starscream's engine sputtered and died, and he plume tied to the ground. Ruby returned to her seat and strapped in, while Flash closed his canopy once again and repressurized his cabin once again in preparation for the ascent into Cybertron's upper atmosphere.

"How did he find us? We couldn't have been seen," said Ruby.

"Likely he was out of the base, although the only reason I could think he would do that would be to go and do something he doesn't want Soundwave to know about. What that could be, though, I have no idea. That's for Silversun to overthink about, I don't waste my time."

"You and Silversun don't get along do you?"

"She doesn't like my… flippant, attitude about death."

"Why are you so flippant about it?"

"When you can't die, it's really hard to care."

"What do you mean you can't die?"

"That's hard to explain… maybe some day."

* * *

 **Hey guys, sorry it's late, and also short, again. At least you got a midair fight, and what'd this? Flash is immortal? But Tim, I thought you didn't make OP characters! Pshaw, I have a hypersonic jet with sensitive hearing… all powers get drawbacks, you just don't know this one's… yet. And you won't for a wh**


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 31**

()()()()()()()()

Spyblade smirked down at his large, unconscious prisoner. She had been most useful, and once he had learned the secrets of Energon mixing, she would be even more useful.

"Commander Spyblade," called his pilot. "Were arriving at the neutrals laboratory."

"Good. Bring us in," he replied. Turning back to his subject, he resumed his smirk.

"Who would have thought that the most intelligent Energon scientist was a reclusive tunnel-bore out on Cybertron's furthest moon. And he's even willing to help me turn you into something Shockwave could never do – the perfect weapon. Assistant!" he called.

Slicer poked his head into the room. "Yes, sir?"

"Make sure the Tox-En is secure, after the previous tests' failures it my have become unstable."

"Yes, sir. Anything else?"

"That will be all."

 **Later**

Omnitron welded the femme's chest plate shut and leaned back. Glancing down below where the admittedly small Decepticons awaited his task's completion, he grunted "It is done," and pulled the lever that lowered the operating table down to their level.

Spyblade's optics glowed with excitement. "When will she online?"

"Soon."

A rumble shook the facility.

Spyblade sprung into action, ordering Slicer to help him drag the femme onto a hover pad to be brought back to the ship. Before either of them could move her, however, two motorcycles, a sports car, and a six-wheeled indycar slammed through the door and transformed into Changewing, Quicksilver, Mercury, and Silversun.

"Open fire!" called Changewing, causing Spyblade to duck and roll out of the way of the hail of blaster-fire. Slicer then dropped the charade and pulled his own gun on the black seeker.

"Give up, Spy!"

"Me? Never! You may have her, but I still have the ability to create more!" The Decepticon transformed and flew out of a different hallway, dodging gunfire all the way down.

After the present members of Apocalypse had calmed down, Changewing turned to Omnitron and gestured to the large femme.

"What did he have you do to her?"

"He wanted to test the effects of mixing synthetic Energon and toxic Energon."

"What? And you _let him?_ "

"I simply assumed that he was trying to find a new way to torture bots to death. I had no clue that the subject would not only survive the procedure but thrive off of the mixture."

"I'm not sure if that's better or worse…"

"In any case, do you wish to take her with you? I have no means of supporting her given her now likely increased Energon consumption rate."

Changewing vented heavily, collapsing in on himself as he realized that the massive mech felt literally nothing for his actions. "Yeah, lemme just… make a call."

()()()()()()()()

After Spectre had come to carry the femme back to base the rest of Apocalypse was in a covert forward operations base discussing strategies with their human counterparts.

"Prime is pushing hard to burn a strait line to Kaon. Ever since Bucket Head went into deep space we've had Screamer on the back foot, and Prime wants to keep it that way. With the Jedi and the Sangheili seizing the orbital blockade from the 'cons, we're finally winning this war," began Changewing.

"Your point?" asked Head Hunter.

Changewing and the Twins glared at him. "The point being, our only priority target is Kaon itself. Optimus is a day away from assaulting it himself, meaning that we, the wreckers and Jazz's Special Ops guys are going in tonight to sow chaos and destruction. That brings me to my next point: deployments.

"Red team; you're going to be deployed with Head Hunter and Silversun in the western district. Blue team; you're with Flashback and Echo in the east. Carolina, you're with the reds, Doc, you're with the blues. Team RWBY plus Penny, you're to go with the Twins and I to the southern district. The North and the Citadel are off-limits, the Wreckers have the North and no one has ever assaulted Darkmount and lived so… Ryder, you're going to be high in the sky giving tactical support to anyone who calls in, Spectre you're to provide support for him. Charger, you're artillery; stay far outside the area and if someone calls in a strike I want nothing left standing where they call."

"Where will Special Ops be?" asked Ryder.

Changewing smirked. "Darkmount."

()()()()()()()()

Silverdust looked down at the large femme from where she sat on Airachnid's shoulder in the observation room.

"What did Ratchet say?" called Airachnid to Arcee as she entered.

"He says there's nothing he can do. Energon transfusions aren't taking, and he doesn't want to risk dumping her entire system… he cursed his lack of knowledge on mixing Energon multiple times."

While Arcee had been guarding mother and daughter she'd slowly grown closet and close to the two, until a couple days ago when Prime had ordered her on a search and destroy mission and Airachnid had volunteered to go along, she had relented and agreed. Now the two considered each other partners, and Arcee had even begun training Silverdust in hand to hand combat for when she was in her humanoid form.

"So she's just going to lie there?" asked Silverdust.

"Until she comes to on her own, there's nothing Ratchet can do," the two-wheeler replied.

Eventually Silverdust climbed down from her mother's shoulder and the two adults went to find Huffer and get a cube of Energon. Switching into her full spider form, she climbed into an air vent and entered the giant femme room. She climbed up onto the berth, gingerly picking her way over a dangling arm, before finding herself perched on the femme's chest.

Said femme showed signs of stirring, before opening her eyes with a start and taking in the surrounding room.

"Hi!"

Acid green optics locked onto friendly purple ones, and the large femme spoke the first words since she'd been changed.

"Hel…lo…"

"My name is Silverdust. What's yours?"

"A... Abyss…"

Ratchet stepped into the room, gasping in surprise at the scene before him. "Silverdust, what are you doing?"

"Making a new friend," she replied, causing Abyss to get a curious look on her face.

"While social interaction is good for her, she is still very injured," the medic replied as he gently removed the small spider from Abyss. "Run along and find your mother, little one. She's not ready for visitors, but the minute she is I'll tell you first."

"Okay. Thanks Ratchet!"

He chuckled and turned around, seeing the look of longing on the femme's face.

"So you can speak?"

"Little… hurts…"

"Processor or vocalizer?"

"Both"

"Hmmmm… do you mind if I put you under for some diagnostic tests?"

"No…"

"Alright, this won't hurt a bit."


	33. Chapter 33

**So it's another massive POV change, a POV I don't think I've written yet. Exciting.**

* * *

A titanic silver mech stalked the menacing corridors of his prized fort, Darkmount. What few fellow Decepticons crossed his path quickly moved out of the way. He could feel _her_ sending him comforting feelings over their Spark-Bond, but she wisely knew only to send enough to keep him from off-lining everyone in his path to the Throne Room.

Said room appeared before him before long. Though his gait was slow, his building-like stature afforded him impressive step length, even for a Cybertronian. He used that stride to cross the room, towering over the small mech who was now turning towards him, quivering.

"Welcome back, Lord Meg–"

"SILENCE, YOU IMBECILE!" roared Megatron. "I tire of your incompetence, Starscream. Please explain to me exactly _how_ the Autobots are on our doorstep?"

"They've called in reinforcements from off-world!"

"Oh? Is that so?" replied the warlord in his customary condescending tone specifically for dealing with Starscream. "I hadn't noticed. Maybe you can shed some light on how they got through the blockade, and WHY THAT BLOCKADE IS SITTING IN BERTHS RATHER THAN FIGHTING THE AUTOBOTS' ALLIES!"

"Wuh-, Well… Soundwave–"

"If you wish to blame Soundwave for your failures _and_ keep your helm, you might want to pick one or the other."

 _He was about to inform you of my near capture. The fleet was recalled to reinforce the troops guarding Kaon. The Autobots' allies slipped in unnoticed during that time. I was monitoring Autobot communications the entire time, and there were no messages sent to space, meaning that we were simply unlucky. It is my impression that Changewing's blockade run, thought to be thwarted by Starscream's Seeker Trine, was in fact successful, allowing Changewing to bring in reinforcements who have since helped the Autobots maintain forward momentum._

Megatron gave no outward acknowledgement of his 'Mate's message, but he did latch on to a very important piece of information from that entire spiel. "And before you continue attempting to make excuses, answer me this: how did anyone know to come to the Autobots' rescue? We've been jamming their deep-space communications for eons. Perhaps a small _green_ jet that _you_ said you'd shot down made it through? Soundwave tells me that he has not only returned at the same time as the reinforcements, but has also been leading several of them into battle, at the cost of _heavy losses."_ His words became icy as he finished with, "I can _not_ tolerate failure of this magnitude!" Grabbing the seeker by the helm, he proceeded to drag him away as he screamed and begged for mercy.

* * *

Spyblade sat in his lab, ruminating on the loss of his pet project. He blamed the Autobot spy, Slicer, if that was even his real name, for the failure, as the operation would have gone smoothly if not for him.

So deep in thought was he that he didn't even notice the alarms start to blare. He did, however, notice the Vehicon drones rushing through the corridor. Hoping to see his new least favorite person on the battlefield, ha rushed out alongside them, transforming and flying out with a battalion of flyers.

 _You're going down, Slicer!_

He broke off from the battalion nearly immediately, as he didn't want to get shot down by the hail of flack that assailed them. He circled the entire city, seeing not only small skirmishes but the entire Autobot army attacking. The allied armada, consisting of two grey, triangular ships and several more rounded purple ones assailed the east and west side with a rain of laser flack. That was when he saw his target.

The small black helo was in a dogfight with Vortex. The two helicopters were unable to get a hit on each other, as they both were too good at dodging their attacks. This left Spyblade with a unique opportunity: sneak in and jab Slicer with a Viral Blade.

He flew above where they were fighting, rolled into an inverted dive, then cut his engines, making himself silent for all intents and purposes. His dive was cut short, however, by a well-timed rocket from a passing banshee, which rolled inverted over him as he was forced to transform from the blast.

He pulled a blade out of subspace as he fell, charging the coded virus up to the surface of the blade. His landing was impeccable – his right foot struck the hapless chopper in the main connection of his rotors, shredding it and sending them plummeting. His left foot landed seconds after on Slicer's tail, denting it and putting them into a tailspin. Finally, he jabbed the blade deep into his victim, ensuring a swift download, before twisting and ripping the blade back out and flipping off the mangled mech and transformed and flew off, shouting behind him, "This is what happens when you piss me off!"

* * *

Arcee and Airachnid were slashing their way through the Vehicons left to guard Darkmount's main entrance. The pair were working seamlessly, their years of fighting allowing them to blend their styles into what looked like a dance.

They had just worked together to eliminate a roving band of leapers when Slicer slammed into the ground in front of them, hard. The two femmes rushed up to him, only to quickly pull away at the obvious signs of viral infection.

"Arcee to Alpha Command, we need an emergency Med-Evac Ground Bridge, and tell Ratchet to use Virus Protection," Arcee called through the emergency comm. Airachnid, however, due to her immunity to most viruses, began what little she knew of emergency first aid. She knew how to break bots, not put them back together.

Slicer's failing optics eventually locked onto Airachnid's. "I ain't gonna make it…. I've never seen a virus like this before, my system won't be able to shake it. Tell Echo it was nice to have a flying mate. He'll need another chopper to help him out, y'know? He doesn't…" his vents started to sputter, and he started showing signs of processor overheating. "He doesn't always remember to take care of himself, taking care of others so often. Take… care…" His optics dimmed, he fell limp, and the ground bridge vortex swirled to life.

And that is how Slicer the helicopter died.

* * *

 **So. That just happened.**


	34. Chapter 34

**After the sadness of the last chapter, I figured we could check in with some main characters who are getting ignored. Also, reminder, this story was conceived before Salem, just a heads up in case people forgot some things.**

()()()()()()()()

Jaune Arc stood at the tower of Beacon, gaping at the sheer mass of blackness converging on the school. Cinder's Grimm army was here, and it was stronger than Teams RWBY and JNPR could have ever imagined. Rushing at the school from all sides were innumerable Beowolves, Ursai, Boarbatusks, Taijitu, Creeps, and he even saw four Goliaths. From the air an array of giant Nevermores escorting Griffins and a Drake flew from the east.

"Sound the alarm!" he called, before sheathing his sword, extending it into its claymore form, then grabbing a familiar clockwork cane and walking to the center of his office. First, he put the cane into a near invisible hole designed exactly for it, which cause a mechanism to reveal a slot that was the exact shape of his sword. Slamming the blade home, he triggered his semblance, calling upon his near infinite aura reserves to project a massive shield around the school, which would allow the students and teachers to prepare for a siege without being caught unawares.

He grunted when the first wave of Grimm hit the field. His expression soon became more and more pained as the darkness roiled outside, but he knew he had to stand firm. The Shining Light of Beacon must always burn against the darkness.

()()()()()()()()

"No! How could they possibly be able to stop the Grimm!?" yelled Salem as she threw a vial of dust against the wall. "The plan was flawless! How could you have failed to take them by surprise?"

Cinder watched as her most vocal subordinate waxed eloquent on the ways she would flay teams RWBY and JNPR alive, among other members of her "little band of thieves" as Roman would say. "Salem. I would advise you to watch yourself. Our Masters have always taught patience above all else."

Cowed, Salem replied "Yes, Lady Cinder."

()()()()()()()()

Summer staggered to her feet. She'd been on bed rest long enough, she decided. She was going to find her scythe and fight, not hide in a hospital bed and hope for the best. On her way to the armory she passed another room in which a man was putting on olive green armor over a black fitted suit.

"Excuse me," he called. His accent was foreign, and Summer had been all over Remnant. "Before she left, Agent Carolina told me my rifle would be in the armory. Could you show me where it is?"

"Sure thing. It's this way."

They set off as soon as Jun had settled his helmet into place. Summer hid her limp as best as she could, but the trained eyes of the Spartan saw through it.

"Ma'am, are you sure you're fit for a battle of this magnitude?" he asked.

"I cannot sit idly by while members of my family are Oum knows where in the galaxy, fighting in wars they shouldn't be a part of, and while others are about to fight in a battle right here at home. No, this is something I must do."

"What will you do then?"

"That is where you can help. Winter Schnee has developed a new dust round using Magnetic dust. By infusing it with my Aura, I can control the flight path of the bullets. The problem is that they aren't as capable at penetration as a normal round. So, if you can punch a hole, I can put a round anywhere in a Grimm's body."

They arrived at the Armory, and Jun's heavily modified SRS99C anti-material rifle was proudly on display on a table in the center of the room. Meanwhile, Summer's Harvest Moon was unfolded in all her glory, the black and white Sniper-Scythe that was oh-so similar to her daughter's gleaming with fresh gun-oil.

"I knew you'd come here."

Summer and Jun whirled around to see Raven standing off the left where she wouldn't have been seen as one came in. "I cleaned her up as best as I could, you always were better at it than I was. Still, gave her a couple test swings and she seems fine, so good luck." She turned and started to walk out, then paused. "Oh, and Tai doesn't know you'll be fighting. So try to stay away from the front lines, it's where he'll be and I'll be watching his back. Stay safe."

When she was out of sight, Jun turned back to Summer. "Who was that?" he asked.

"That was my wife, telling me not to tell my husband that I'm fighting."

"Excuse me… you have a wife _and_ a husband?"

"Yeah… ours is an unusual relationship, but for the longest time we made it work…. I'm sorry, I shouldn't dump my problems onto you. In any case, we should get moving. The top of Beacon Tower is the most effective place to stage a sniper nest."

By the time the two Snipers had made it to the top of the Tower, the Students, teachers, and various other full fledged Hunters had all prepared and assembled in the courtyard, ready to meet the Grimm advance. "Remember," said Summer. "Pick a target, punch a hole in their armor anywhere. I'll handle the rest. Pick, shoot, rinse, repeat."

"Got it, ma'am. What are my priority targets?"

"Anything that flies or anything that is bigger that the rest. I trust your judgement, just remember to call your shots, I need to see the hole you make to direct bullets. Once I get a bullet into them, I'll use whatever inertia it still has to ruin the innards of our victim."

"That… sounds incredibly dark."

"Oh well, you know. Even the moon darkens from time to time."

Before they knew it, the shield had dropped and the darkness surged forward. Jun picked his first target; one of the Goliaths. Each target he marked was summarily destroyed by a glowing indigo round from the white clad sniper. On the front lines, a tale of fire and death was weaved by the rest of the Xiao-Long-Branwen family, rapidly thinning the smaller ranks.

()()()()()()()()

Cinder left the war room to take a call. This caused chaos to ensue, just as she predicted. She entered a darkened room with the only holotable on this planet, which had a blinking green light. She pressed on it, before dropping into a kneel.

"You have failed me yet again, Lady Cinder. My meditations reveal the decline of your influence on Remnant."

"Master, you do not understand–"

"Oh, but I _do_ understand. I understand perfectly. I understand that a Sheathipede-class transport shuttle has been dispatched to your location. I understand that you will not attempt to use it to flee, but will board it and journey to Coruscant, where I will deal with you as the masters of old did. I also understand that you have not completed your lightsaber. Why…?"

"It hinders me. My innate powers are far more useful to me than a light stick."

"Suit yourself. You may yet need it, bring it with you. The shuttle will be there within the hour, do not take anyone with you, nor will you let anyone see you leave. Do _you_ understand _me_?"

"Yes, Master Sidious."

()()()()()()()()

 **The ending sucks. No doubt. That's mostly due to the time table of this story quickening due to… plot… elements. Yeah. Plot. Let's go with that. Questions, comments, let me know.**

 **Also, belated disclaimer, I don't own any of this, yada yada, I'm not getting paid, yada yada, I love you Disney, 343, Roosterteeth, etc, thanks for not suing me.**


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